The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) disclosed that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has given a P500-million fund allocation for setting up of regional offices to oversee the reintegration of non-state armed groups and former rebels.

This was revealed by DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian to members of the House Committee on Appropriations recently.

“We talked to the DBM, and this budget season, they gave us an allocation of P500 million to jumpstart our regional program management office for the Inclusive Sustainable Peace and Special Concerns (ISPSC) cluster under Undersecretary Alan Tanjusay,” Gatchalian said.

The DSWD chief also informed the members of the Appropriations Committee that the agency continues to improve programs and services for peace and development, particularly on case management of former rebels and decommissioned combatants.

“First of all, our payout to the rebel returnees is continuous. Based on the targets identified by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity, they give to us, we disburse. But in a hearing in the Senate, we pointed out that there is a gap in the mechanism, no one is managing case,” he added.

Gatchalian’s statements was in response to House Deputy Majority leader Erwin Tulfo when asked about the agency’s programs for rebel returnees during the 21 August budget hearing for the DSWD’s proposed 2025 budget.

Stressing the DSWD’s commitment to complement financial grants and other assistance to rebel-returnees, Gatchalian said the agency developed an aftercare case management mechanism to ensure and monitor sustained deradicalization and reintegration of the sector into their communities and families.

“What is the mandate of these regional offices that we will create? Let’s have him pilot in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao areas, so we can make sure that those who have been decommissioned, those who have been paid are being monitored,” the DSWD chief said.

He added that the pilot will be conducted across three regional offices in Mindanao 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.

The regional offices are also eyeing to deploy 400 social workers to exclusively handle case management for the rebel returnees. The case management approach is under the DSWD’s Peace and Development Buong Bansa Mapayapa Program.