Four rebel returnees get livelihood assistance

From the Philippine Information Agency (Feb 27): Four rebel returnees get livelihood assistance

Four rebel returnees here were recently given livelihood assistance of P50,000 each through the Comprehensive Local Integration Plan (CLIP) of the province.

According to Eusebia Haddac, CLIP coordinator of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO), said fund assistance came from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPPAP) as part of the closure agreement between the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) and the OPPAP.

The four recipients will be engaging in rice production activities. Three of them will use their money to buy farm inputs. In addition to the farm inputs, one opted to buy a carabao for his upland rice farming, another intends to buy a pig to raise and the other to use at least P10,000 to start a small sari-sari store with canteen.

One of the beneficiaries will use his money as mortgage for an additional farmland to increase his rice production activity.

Said recipients were part of the 15 beneficiaries being proposed for funding from the OPAPP, Social Integration Program (SIP). The other 11, she said, are still awaiting approval and fund release.

Currently, the province is opting to organize the CLIP Committee under the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) of the province, she said. This is part of the localization of the SIP of the national government being implemented by the OPAPP.

“Its integration in the PPOC will mean that future programs will be planned and funded by the council,” she said.

http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=191361940215