DAVAO ORIENTAL—The Local Government Units of Surigao del Sur and the National Capital Region have recently visited the Province of Davao Oriental to benchmark its implementation of the Expanded Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP) for rebel returnees and the operation of the Happy Home which is the country’s first and only halfway house for former rebels in the country.

Both local government units signified their intent to duplicate Davao Oriental’s ECLIP implementation, particularly the establishment of a halfway house, to fully assist former rebels in their transition towards a civilian life.

Surigao del Sur’s Provincial Administrator Efren Rivas said during their benchmarking activity on November 23 that although they have an existing program for former rebels, there is still a need to adopt a holistic approach in addressing the needs of former rebels in order to ensure sustainability of all interventions for them.

Under the ECLIP, former rebels who have expressed the desire to return into the folds of the law and disengaged in armed violence undergo systematic assessment, processing, delivery of immediate interventions, and development of individual reintegration plans for three months in a processing center and a civilian facility called Happy Home.

“In Surigao del Sur, we already have an intervention for former rebels but it is not as systematic compared to Davao Oriental,” Rivas said.

Sharing the same border as well as insurgency problem with Davao Oriental, Rivas said that through the leadership of their provincial governor, they will push for the program’s replication to attain a massive turnout of rebel surrender in their area.

“We received P5 Million funding from the national government to put up a halfway house. Now what we need to do is to adopt the processes, the systems that Davao Oriental has been doing. This benchmarking activity will help us put everything in place, to help us attract more rebels to surrender because Surigao del Sur is conflict-affected but development-ready province,” he added.

The delegation from NCR, led by DILG OIC Regional Director Juan Jovian Ingeniero, has benchmarked the province’s ECLIP on November 25. He applauded Davao Oriental’s ECLIP innovation, especially the first step of the program before the rebel returnee is turned-over to the halfway house, the de-radicalization course. Designed to get rid of the “swayed and twisted doctrines of the communist insurgents”, the ten-day de-radicalization course, held at the Ugnayan Center of the Philippine Army’s 701st Brigade, reintroduces Philippine Constitution and spirituality that were stripped off from the former rebels while they were still on the communist insurgent’s movement.

“We have seen the peculiarity of the Province of Davao Oriental especially on your campaign against insurgency by drawing rebels to surrender to the folds of the law. And we are pleased with what we have learned because ECLIP is a holistic approach wherein all community are involved including the LGU, private sector, the government, the army, the police. It is here where we have witnessed that the government can win through convergence of effort,” Ingeniero said.

“We have just started with our program on ECLIP because as you all know there are no rebels in NCR. We only have “white areas”. Last year four former rebels from other region surrendered and we anticipate more of them to surface. So we need to learn from you the roles of the LGU, the role of each agency. We need to educate ourselves and one way of educating ourselves is to benchmark the best practice of an LGU, the Davao Oriental,” he said.

Although NCR has been tagged as a breeding place for white area, those that provide logistic support for the red area which engage in armed violence, NCR’s Joint Task Force Commander Brigadier General Abrahan Claro Casis said that they need to establish a facility as former rebels from other regions feel safe to surrender in their region. He said these surrenderees are temporarily housed in JTF-NCR’s headquarters.

“Our rebel returnees are coming from Mindanao, in fact some of them are from Davao and Bicol area. Since we still we have no existing halfway house they are temporarily sheltered in our headquarters,” Casis said.

Davao Oriental’s ECLIP, which was already benchmarked by four LGUs this year, has already served 278 former rebels since 2013. Currently, there are 19 former rebels who undergo the integration process, the second batch for this year yet to avail of the program.

Welcoming the guests, among others, is newly installed Commander of the 701st Brigade, Col. Manuel Sequitin, who left the guest with a message that “ECLIP is not just about feeding these rebel returnees, it’s more about feeding the soul of the person and the living dead back to mainstream society”. Photos by Eden Jhan Licayan and Rhea Shane Laureano