The Duterte administration’s implementation of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program is the primary reason why the insurgency in the country is now on a decline, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.
“Our government is here, led by President Rodrigo Duterte. He will give everyone a chance to return to the fold of the law, live a new life in peace and make everyone able to contribute to development,” Lorenzana said in a statement sent to reporters Wednesday.
Through this program, more rebels are sending surrender feelers to the government, he said.
The DND chief made this comment during the final leg of the two-day Peace Summit for the Former Rebels at the Northern Luzon Command headquarters in Tarlac.
The event also included the surrender of firearms and the ceremonial acceptance of 125 FRs from Regions 1, 2, 3 and Cordillera.
E-CLIP is the flagship program of the Duterte administration that seeks to effect social healing and national unity through a whole-of-nation approach towards the higher objective of having just and lasting peace.
It also provides social equity to former members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front and the Militia ng Bayan by devising a different modality of providing benefits and services to the FRs, in order to reintegrate them into mainstream society.
Lorenzana also commended the efforts of all agencies under the Task Force Balik-Loob, headed by Defense Undersecretary Reynaldo Mapagu, which implements the E-CLIP by consolidating all the programs of TFBL lead and partner agencies, as well as local government units which implement the reintegration program in their localities through the E-CLIP Committees headed by provincial governors.
