Bontoc, Mountain Province – The city government of Baguio is set to replicate the Provincial Integration Program for Rebel Returnees of Mountain Province.
The Technical Working Group (TWG) of the City Human Rights Justice Peace and Order Council (CHRJPOC) has a positive outlook on the implementation of the province’s local integration program when they visited the province on Tuesday last week.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Baguio City Director Evelyn B. Trinidad said that the program’s concept is simple but is a great help in addressing the insurgency situation in the place. She said that the national government must learn from the rebel returnee program of the province because it has an effective mechanism and is more sustainable than the Comprehensive Local Integration Program.
The Provincial Integration Program for Rebel Returnees (formerly known as Rebel Returnee Program of Mountain Province) is one of the special programs of the provincial government. The program was born in 2010 through Executive Order No. 53 Series of 2010 under the stint of then Governor Leonard G. Mayaen and it was ratified by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan on the same year. With this, Mountain Province takes pride in being the first local government unit in the country to formulate and implement its local rebel returnee program.
This special program of the provincial government aim to support the integration of duly recognized and validated rebel returnee to the mainstream of society. In this regard, the provincial government is allocating an annual budget intended for their livelihood program.
According to Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer Rosalinda T. Belagan, the program was conceptualized to address insurgency problem. It involves convincing members of the NPA that the local government is sincere in helping and providing services to them, particularly in addressing unemployment, poverty and social services.
In its pilot run last 2011, 37 individuals benefited on the program. The PSWDO informed that the provincial government is still ready to accommodate new surrenderers who are from Mountain Province.
Under the program, each recipient is receiving an honorarium of 5,000.00 in exchange to community services rendered as stipulated in the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). They would either work as a forest guard, reforestation worker, road maintenance man, community worker and other jobs as maybe agreed upon and under the direct supervision of their barangay captains.
It must be noted that the program is dependent on the appropriation of the provincial government. It is a good thing the current Governor Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr. recognizes the positive impact of the program and approved its continuation.
Under the MOA, a recipient can be disqualified if he/she has a pending case in any court involving crimes against chastity, rape, torture, kidnapping for ransom and other crimes for personal ends and violation of international law. A recipient will also be terminated when she/he refuse to send his/her children to school, she/he refuses or fails to live within the norms of society and when she/he maintains his relation with the underground movement such as New People’s Army (NPA) or the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front (CPDF).
To maintain the sustainability of the program, the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office is conducting a year end assessment and evaluation on the month of December of each year to provide a venue for sharing of accomplishments and discuss issues and concerns in the presence of their barangay captains to improve the delivery of services. Meanwhile, the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) maintain a very important role in monitoring the recipients.
The Provincial Government of Mountain Province believes that the replication of the rebel returnee program by other LGU’s is anchored on the premise that if Mountain Province can convince its local members of the NPA to lay down their arms and return to their respective communities, the strength of NPA in the province would diminish. It is believed that the local NPA are primarily instrumental or primary instruments in the mobility of the rebels in the province. When there are no local insurgents, outside insurgents would find it difficult to neither stage any insurgency related incidents nor carry out any recruitment activities in the province. It is believed that the local insurgents are the ones primarily responsible in bridging interactions between the NPA and community.
It is also believed that if the nearby or adjacent Provincial LGU’s can also convince their local NPAs to lay down their arms and return to their communities, the strength of the group in their respective province would likewise diminish. The mechanism would eventually lead to diminishing the strength of NPA in the entire Cordillera Region. It is believed that the same effect follows in the national level.
By Erwin S. Batnag
