BAGUIO CITY – Some ninety six former rebels who returned to the fold of the law benefited from more than PhP6.4 million worth of various assistance from the government from July 2022 to June 2024.
Aracely San Jose, regional director of the Cordillera office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG-CAR), explained that under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP), each of the returnees or former violent extremists will be entitled to some PhP15,000 in immediate assistance, PhP50,000 worth of livelihood assistance and some PhP21,000 worth of re-integration assistance.
Further, she added that for every surrendered firearm, the government will pay to the former rebel double the valuation of the same based on the standards of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The DILG-CAR official claimed that from July 2022 to June 2024, the 96 former rebels received a total of PhP1.395 million in immediate assistance, PhP1.3 million in livelihood assistance, PhP1.68 million in re-integration assistance and PhP1.974 million firearms remuneration.
San Jose disclosed that the beneficiaries of the ECLIP came from Abra, Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province and Baguio City during the said period.
She lauded the Apayao provincial government headed by Gov. Elias C. Bulut, Jr. for coming out with Executive Order No. 22, series of 2022 that granted a reward of PhP500,000 each for every rebel returnee and some PhP1 million for tipsters on the whereabouts of communist rebels who are seeking refuge in the different parts of the province.
According to her, since the implementation of the said order, some six former rebels were able to avail of the said assistance that now runs to PhP3 million.
For his part, Police Brig. Gen. David K. Peredo, Jr., regional director of the Cordillera Office of the Police Regional Office (PRO-CAR), said that from 2016 to present, there were some 338 former rebels who were able to go back to mainstream society with government providing them with more than PhP23 million worth of various assistance pursuant to existing laws, rules and regulations.
He added that based on current reports from the field, there are only less than 100 members of the New Peoples Army (NPA) that are operating in the different parts of the region and that their strength is continuously declining with the surrender of a good number of them over the past several years following the benefits that they get from the program and their being tired in trying to hide from the long arms of the law.
“We will continue our intensified internal security operations in strategic areas in the different parts of the region to gradually neutralize the operations of the communist rebels. We will sustain our unrelenting and uncompromising activities that will compel the rebels to come back to the floods of the law and embrace peaceful means of living,” Peredo stressed.
Government officials continue to rally the remaining remnants of the communist movement operating in the remote villages of the region to consider going back to the floods of the law and avail of the benefits being provided for those who will renew their allegiance to the State and start a new lease in life. By Dexter A. See
