The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is setting up regional offices that would assist and follow up on the reintegration of former rebels and non-state armed groups, starting with three offices in Mindanao.
Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian said the Department of Budget and Management has allotted P500 million for the setting up of the three regional offices for the pilot implementation of the Inclusive Sustainable Peace and Special Concerns (ISPSC) program under the Office of Social Welfare Undersecretary Alan Tanjusay.
Gatchalian said at least 400 social workers would be deployed to the regional office to exclusively handle case management for the rebel returnees.
He said the ISPSC will oversee the aftercare case management “to ensure and monitor sustained deradicalization and reintegration of the sector into their communities and families.”
Gatchalian said the regional offices, which will be piloted in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao areas, will ensure that the decommissioned rebels who have been given benefits are monitored.
The ISPSC is under the DSWD’s Peace and Development Buong Bansa Mapayapa (PDBBM) Program which aims to streamline the agency’s long-term commitment to look after the welfare and livelihood of former members of various non-state groups, violent extremist groups, and adults and children in armed conflict situations.
The initial three regional offices will be tasked to assess the extent of assistance and support it can provide to the well-being of non-state armed groups and former rebels, as well as leading them back to society as law-abiding and productive citizens.
“It’s a pilot, but once we see the progress in it as it pans out, because we know that the case management for former combatants is quite different, we will now use the experience there and expand it all throughout the country,” Gatchalian said.
During a hearing at the House of Representatives, Gatchalian said DSWD continues to distribute cash payouts for rebel returnees identified and endorsed under the programs of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU) but it needs some form of case management to compliment financial grants and other assistance given to rebel-returnees and non-state armed groups.
He said the DSWD developed the ISPSC mechanism.
The DSWD, in coordination with the OPAPRU and the Department of Interior and Local Government, has been providing cash and livelihood aid to government programs for returning rebels, such as amnesty grant for rebel returnees and former members of Muslim armed secessionist groups, and the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program for former rebels and former violent extremist, among others.
