14 ILIGAN CITY EX-REBELS RECEIVE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

More rebel returnees will benefit through the Enhanced-Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) as Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) released a total of Php 210,00.00-worth financial assistance to14 former rebels who surrendered in Iligan City.

With this, DILG Iligan City Program Manager and E-CLIP Focal Person LGOO Elizabeth G. Buna said that the assistance offered to the ex- rebels is one way for them to start anew, as well as regain their trust and confidence to the government.

“This could also be an inspiration to their former colleagues to go back to the folds of the law and be a part of a progressive and peaceful community— realizing that ‘the government is for the people, by the people and of the people’,” she added.

Iligan City Mayor Celso G. Regencia led the awarding of checks last October 29 to said 14 former rebels who made it to the hand-over ceremony, out of the 20 target FR beneficiaries.

E-CLIP will provide a complete package of assistance to former rebels who were members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA), and National Democratic Front (NDF), as well as their family members, who have surrendered to the government to abandon armed struggle and become productive members of the society.

“This is one of the best mechanisms that the Philippine Government ever conceived—to gradually win the battle against insurgency,” LGOO Buna said. “Through this, having a better quality of life for our former rebels will no longer be a dream, but a reality for them to savor with their families and loved ones”

The FRs can also avail of the services of the Halfway House which shall be established temporarily at the Gymnasium of Global Steel (formerly NSC) Company at Barangay Suarez.  It shall then serve as the temporary center for an additional assistance that maybe sourced out from partner institutions/agencies such as skills training, capacity building, and others that the government can offer through its subsidiaries.

“Hopefully this would successfully lead to achieving the goals of Executive Order 70,” LGOO Buna said.

E-CLIP and Amnesty Program is just one out of the five (5) clusters of EO 70, dubbed as the “Whole-of-Nation Approach,” that is led by the DILG. Other clusters are Sectoral Unification, Local Government Empowerment, Basic Services, and Localized Peace Engagement—all in the pursuit of finally ending the 50-year long insurgency problem in the country.

“This is a challenge for us to be a channel of peace as we come together with all the government instrumentalities and stakeholders in the society,” LGOO Buna said.