P2-M livelihood for ex-rebels

Photo by Stella A. Estremera.
Photo by Stella A. Estremera.

DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio awarded P1.985 million worth of livelihood projects to 14 former rebels from Paquibato District, Davao City during the first anniversary celebration of the Davao City Peace 911 on Saturday, May 25.

This is part of the effort of the local government to entice communist rebels and their supporters to surrender to authorities. Aside from LGU’s effort, the national government also created the Enhanced Comprehensive and Local Integration Program (E-Clip), which provides livelihood and financial assistance to surrenderers.

In a statement from the Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) during the activity, Duterte-Carpio also formally announced the expansion of Peace 911 to 18 more barangays in Davao City which were formerly affected by communist armed conflict after seeing the success of the peace initiatives.

"The objective now is to sustain peace in Paquibato and make it durable," Eastmincom commander Lieutenant General Santos Jr. said.

Paquibato District is an IP area of Davao City where the LGU piloted the Peace 911. Efforts are being poured here to transform it into a conflict-resilient area through their program "Terrorism to Tourism" in order to erase notion as hotbed of the New People's Army (NPA).

Paquibato, which has been a conflict-affected area for many years and was the guerilla base of NPA in Davao City, was declared conflict free after a successful peace program was implemented by Davao City with a strong support from the security sector, Eastmincom said.

The armed forces, meanwhile, assured that they will work hand in hand with the peace programs of the government to address insurgency problem and solve its root cause.

"We shall be in the forefront of supporting different conflict and cultural sensitive initiatives and other peace endeavors of the Local Government Unit of Davao City through the PEACE 911," Santos added.

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