TAGUM CITY — The provincial government of Davao del Norte has started the construction of the PHP5 million Halfway House for former rebels. The proposed structure will rise inside the compound of the 60th IB Philippine Army, Doña Andrea, Asuncion.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG 11) Assistant Regional Director Abdullah Matalam said the Halfway house is built for direct integration and enrolment process of former rebels.
“There are series of activities before returning to public as productive member of the community. We have the DILG Memorandum Circular 2018-105 which says ‘All LGUs shall be allocated with a financial assistance to Enhance Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) for each and every provinces for the construction of Halfway House,” he said. He also added that the project was funded through the E-CLIP Assistance Project of DILG and Task Force Balik-Loob Program as a support of the local government unit to the Executive Order No. 70 — Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC).
The said facility will also be a temporary shelter, a school where former rebels will be educated and trained before they will be sent back to their communities. “I am happy on the very active and very dynamic response of the local government agencies especially the governor of Davao del Norte, Governor Jubahib, DILG and Provincial Social Welfare Development (PSWD). We are seeing the manifestation of the ground not only on conferences and meetings. We see tangible results with the dynamism of everyone else around here,” said MGen Reuben S. Basiao, Commander of the 10th Infantry Division.
The house will accommodate FR’s coming from Davao del Norte and its neighboring towns and provinces like Bukidnon, Agusan, Butuan, Davao de Oro and Davao Oriental.
Since he assumed office, Jubahib has been the favorite official of former rebels to whom they wanted to turn over their guns and return to the mainstream society. Major General Reuben Basiao, the commander of the military’s 10th Infantry Division revealed “Many FR’s feel comfortable with Governor Jubahib, a reason many of their comrades want to surrender before him”.
“It is a good indicator. In fact, I’ve even talked to a rebel returnee who specifically mentioned that he wants to surrender to Davao del Norte. With that, we can see that the program of Governor Jubahib is very effective and the province is very responsive to their needs,” he said.
The construction of the facility is expected to be completed in three months and will soon house the FRs.-NewsLine
