Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. on Thursday urged all local government units (LGUs) to ramp up their efforts in helping former rebels and former violent extremists reintegrate in mainstream society. In a “Balik-Loob sa Pagbabago” episode, Abalos said integration is an important step in the whole-nation approach in ending and defeating communist insurgency in the country. Abalos added that the convergence of the government’s counterinsurgency efforts is a gamechanger in addressing not only internal security threats but also the ills of society such as poverty, social inequality and historical injustice, among others. He said this is the reason why the DILG supports and promotes the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) and other local social services programs that help the members of vulnerable sectors and marginalized communities. E-CLIP is a government reintegration program that administers a complete package of benefits and assistance to help former rebels to live their lives anew with their families, and become productive members of society. As one of the lead agencies of Task Force Balik-Loob (TFBL), Abalos said the DILG provides an array of assistance to eligible E-CLIP beneficiaries which includes immediate assistance worth PHP15,000, livelihood assistance worth PHP50,000 (only for regular members of New People’s Army), reintegration assistance worth PHP21,000 and firearms remuneration. It also provides PHP5 million to each LGU for the construction of a halfway house. ‘The DILG capacitates LGUs on how to better implement, kasi importante ang LGUs, alam nila, maunawaan nila, ano mekanismo, ano strategy, ano guidelines. Alam dapat nila ‘yun to better implement this initiative that caters to individuals who decided to abandon this armed struggle and return to the fold of the law and get reintegrated into the mainstream [society], (The DILG capacitates the LGUs on how to better implement, since it is important for LGUs to know and understand the mechanism, understand the strategy, the guidelines. They should know how to better implement this initiative that caters to individuals who decided to abandon this armed struggle and return to the fold of the law and get reintegrated into mainstream society) the DILG chief said. Abalos also emphasized the need to strengthen the capacity of LGUs as one of the lead implementers of E-CLIP to provide better service to beneficiaries and ensure reintegration of former rebels to their communities. ‘In short, ang DILG sa pamamagitan ng ating local government, ang probinsya, ang lungsod, hanggang dito sa munisipyo hanggang barangay, sinisigurado namin na lahat sila kasama rito at alam nila ang ginagawa nila. Importante ang reconciliation in a non-violent manner (In short, the DILG acts as the intermediary between the local government, the province, city, municipality and the barangay, we make sure that they are all here and they know what they are doing. Reconciliation is important in a non-violent manner,” he said
Source: Philippines News Agency