Davao De Oro – One Hundred (100) former rebels (FRs) in Davao De Oro received ₱ 20,000 Livelihood Settlement and ₱ 4,000 for Food and Transportation assistance for a total of Two Million and Four Hundred Thousand Pesos (₱ 2,400,000 )financial aid from the government as beneficiaries of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP).
The cash aid handed to the FRs in a ceremony at the Activity Hall of Capitol Building, Nabunturan, Davao De Oro on October 13, 2020 which was attended by Mr. Noel C Duarte, Provincial Director DILG Head representative of Governor Jayvee Tyron L Uy; Ms. Josephine Frasco, PSWDO Oplan Pagbabago Focal; Mr. Kerwin Gabasa, EO 70 Focal for SLP and 1001st Brigade under Col. Luis Rex D. Bergante INF(GSC) PA.
Mr. Noel C Duarte, Provincial Director DILG Head in a message told the FRs that “You all came down dahil ramdam nyo ang tulong ng gobyerno.’ Your presence here today is a testimony of that fact.” Reintegration assistance funds are intended for the subsistence of the FRs as well as for expenses in securing documents such birth certificates and identification cards, and expenses for mobility.
In a message to his fellow FRs, Tatay Boby, who also received government assistance advised his fellow colleagues to be prudent in spending what they received from the government.
Speaking in the vernacular, he told them, ”Let us not waste the cash assistance we received from the government. Instead let us use this money as a capital while we start to live an upright living.”
Before his surrender, Tatay Boby spent 31 years as a recruiter for the communist terrorist group and a combatant fighting against government troops.
(CMO 1001st Brigade | DPAO 10th ID | OIC Michael Manguhig, RPN DXKT Davao)