MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur (PIA)–Aiming to fully transition and bring the former combatants back to the mainstream, the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) in partnership with the 103rd Infantry Brigade and Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education – Technical Education and Skills Development (MBHTE-TESD) enforced once again the Bangsamoro government’s Project Tulong ng Gobyernong Nagmamalasakit (TuGoN) to give more assistance to the rightful beneficiaries.
Such a project is an undertaking that seeks to deliver proper interventions to insurgents within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) who have surrendered and returned to the fold of law.
The MILG shared that this is to ensure that they will be reintegrated into society and will not revert back to unlawful activities, noting that their socio-economic issues are already resolved alongside their achievement of a stable and satisfactory status of life.
103rd Infantry Brigade Civil Military Operations (CMO) Officer Col. Palawan Miondas detailed that the recent event on Wednesday, October 12, was the fourth time they pushed for the aforementioned initiative.
He reiterated that through this project, they exert effort at their level by tapping partner line agencies to extend their programs to former rebels in the area.
“Ang trabaho namin is to facilitate at ilapit kayo sa mga agency na mayroong programa [para sa inyo],” said Miondas.
[Our job is to facilitate and bridge you to agencies that have programs [for you].]
With the pursued session of Project TuGoN, at least 41 former rebels from the municipalities of Butig and Piagapo both in the province of Lanao del Sur received P5,000 cash grant in addition to the assured Agriculture Crops Production Training, 50-kilo sacks of rice, and some food items.
Meanwhile, the MILG bared that as of September this year, 256 surrenderees in the BARMM were already profiled and have benefitted from particular assistance offered.
Accordingly, 56 of these were former members of Dawlah Islamiya-Maute coming from Lanao del Sur province.
Moreover, 84 former combatants are scheduled to be profiled and assisted soon.
Miondas reiterated that they aim to sustain the delivery of aid to these target beneficiaries. (CRG/PIA-10/Lanao del Sur)
