LGU campaigns for safe Socorro, reintegration program now in place
The local chief executive emphasized, "The local government unit of
Socorro already deployed law enforcers in many parts of the island and
checkpoints are being conducted 24/7 in different areas to ensure the safety of
tourists and citizens and to maintain peace and order in the whole
municipality. We assured the tourists that the tourism activities of the whole
island of Bucas Grande will not be affected by the recent issue and that the
matter does not pose any danger or threat to our valued visitors."
According to consolidated reports of the Provincial Peace and Order Council
(PPOC) chaired by Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers that Socorro Bayanihan
Services, Inc. (SBSI) was officially founded in 1980 by Rosalina L. Taruc
and Don Albino Taruc. On February 2019 right after the 5.9 magnitude earthquake
that struck the province, all the members of SBSI living within the island
hastily trooped to Sitio Kapihan, a mountainous area in Bucas Grande Island. By
February to November 2019, a mass resignation from employment of personnel from
the Department of Education (DepEd), Philippine National Police (PNP), LGU,
barangays and from the Socorro Empowered People's Cooperative (SOEMCO)
took place.
As reported, 121 members of SOEMCO, who at the same time SBSI members, abandoned their loans amounting to P8.9 million, and chose to live in isolation and confinement within Sitio Kapihan, a 353 hectares of land owned by the government which was leased to the SBSI by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources–Protected Area Management Board (DENR–PAMB) under a 25-year duration for agriculture and farming purposes.
An opportune happened since April 2023 and onwards, as SBSI members who escaped
from Sitio Kapihan approached the government for help and revealed the alleged
atrocities within the organization, that caught the attention of the general
public.
With ongoing legislative hearing, and the suspension of the protected
area of Sitio Kapihan by the DENR, the provincial government of Surigao del
Norte, through the Provincial Task Force, took an initial step through
coordination meeting with key government agencies, with mandate to closely
monitor the Kapihan crisis, and to put in place anticipatory resources and
reintegration planning and feasible programs, including the peace and security
situation of the LGU until the situation normalizes.
With the profiling conducted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), it will continue to monitor and support the social welfare needs of the vulnerable members through psycho-social interventions and others.
The Department of Education (DepEd) will facilitate easy access to education for the affected children, especially those who stopped going to school as they joined the said organization.
Relocation and shelter, as vital for reintegration, was also highlighted and led by the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) with recommendation that the LGU should provide the location or possible lots as resettlement areas with proposed housing models from the National Housing Authority (NHA) and financing options.
Other regional line agencies such as PNP, AFP, CHR and others gave their share to come up with a streamlined reintegration program to our fellow Filipinos who are currently under crisis situation. (With reports from PTO/PPOC/SDR, PIA-Surigao del Norte)
