Bohol gets P5M halfway

house for former rebels

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, (PIA)—With a track record of good fiscal management, Bohol gets to administer a package of assistance for former rebels and Militia ng Bayan, in a P5M assistance from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for a half-way house for former rebels in transit to integration to the society.

The new facility, which would be the second in the Visayas after the one in Negros Oriental, would be a temporary house for rebel returnees who are awaiting for enrolment to the re-integration programs and serve as a venue in conducting rehabilitation and healing sessions, education and skills training activities for their easy reintegration to the mainstream, explains DILG 7 Regional Director Leocadio Trovela, who personally attended the 3Q joint meetings of Provincial Peace and Order and Anti-Drug Abuse, Sept. 23.

Director Trovela and Bohol Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado, as authorized by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution No. 873 , Series of 2025 signed the Memorandum of Agreement for the P5 million assistance, witnessed by new Bohol DILG provincial director John Joan Mende and members of the two councils.

Gov Aumentado, whose two terms has been marked by record number of surrendering former rebels, said he is elated at the development, as this can be critical goodwill step from the government who is willing to finally build lasting peace.

To be called a Half-way House, the facility for construction, is in line with Administrative Order No. 10 series of 2018 which centralized all government efforts for the reintegration of former Rebels and created the Inter-Agency Task Force, while using the government’s Enhanced-Comprehensive Local Integration program (E-CLIP) for individuals who have decided to abandon armed struggle and return to the fold of the law and the mainstream society.

As the government dangles the E-CLIP for surrendering former rebels from 2018 to present and who were active then, whose who surfaced much earlier are boxed out of the package of benefits.

For them, Gov Aumentado issued Executive Order No 27, series of 2023, which put up the local Kauban sa Reporma Program (KRP), as a fall-back position for former rebels who could not benefit for the E-CLIP.

This KRP is an institutionalized local E-CLIP, and by the EO 27, active members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army –National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) who plan to surrender but could not avail of the ECLIP benefits have a way back to the mainstream, shares Bohol PTF ELCAC coordinator Romeo Teruel.

Under the KRP, part of the benefits for surrendering is the Halfway house services where former rebels can stay in a temporary housing facility while their enrolment to the government’s local integration program is processed, added Provincial Social Welfare and Development officer Carmelita Tecson.

This, along with immediate assistance for processing into the program, livelihood assistance as a start-up project, reintegration assistance, security arrangement and other forms of assistance firm up the local KRP.

Now a social welfare service for rebel returnees, the facility is also the realization of the DILG mandate to strengthen LGU capability to discharge their powers and functions in service delivery.

Moreover, the DILG provides technical assistance to Bohol in the conduct of capacity-building activities to assist in the effective implementation of the local reintegration program, while the Provincial Government maintains the provincial reintegration mechanism who formulates the provincial reintegration plan.

And as the facility would be run by the province through its social welfare office, Bohol prepares the program of works, detailed engineering design, oversee its construction and manage and maintain the facility.

It will also conduct preliminary interviews, psycho-social profiling of FRs, and maintain a database of beneficiaries, provide psychosocial support and interventions, logistical assistance in the establishment and management of the facility and ensure allocation of logistical support in its operations. (PIABohol)

HALFWAY BUT FULL. DILG Director Leocadio Trovela asks Bohol to sustain the facility and fill it with training and rehabilitation programs for former rebels to truly serve its purpose in helping reintegration. The DILG funded the P5M facility which the Aumentado Administration has sought in its Executive Order No 27 in 2013. (PIABohol)