City to employ drug surrenderees

LAOAG CITY, September 26 (PIA) – Former drug personalities (FDP) who volunteered to surrender here will be included in the next leg of the ‘Cash-for-Work’ (CFW) program of the city government.

“This is to help them gain a decent employment,” Laoag City Mayor Chevylle V. Fariñas said in a media interview recently.

The “Agserbi 24/7:Laoag Saluadak” (Service 24/7: Protect Laoag) will employ five surrenderees from each village here in their bid to provide assistance for their total reformation.

“This is to show that we are bent on really helping them change and in support to President Duterte’s war on drugs,” Fariñas said.

The Laoag City government is currently preparing for the next phase of the CFW program which will be implemented in all the 80 barangays in the city.

The program will employ a total of 20 residents from each barangay for the simultaneous 10-day clean-up drive in the community, schools, waterways, among others.

Each worker will receive a daily wage of P231 in return of community services that they will render in helping to maintain the cleanliness as a pre-disaster activity.

To establish the program as an annual activity that will provide temporary employment to the residents here, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) of Laoag City has recently passed an ordinance creating the program as an annual undertaking of the city.

According to Fariñas, the ordinance provided that the program will be implemented twice a year with a total fund amounting to P3 million.

“This may be temporary employment but at least we are able to help people earn a living for their families,” said Fariñas.

Aside from the employment in the CFW program, the city government also helped the volunteers to gain employment through a jobs fair recently conducted in August.

The city will also include these volunteers in the livelihood programs as the social welfare and development office here is now preparing for the dispersal of pigs for them.

“We want them to feel that they are welcome in the city,” Fariñas added.

Fariñas have also appealed to the drug volunteers to remain clean and drug-free so the government’s assistance will continue to serve them.

“I ask them to continue the reformation and show to the people that they can contribute to the goodness in the community,” said Fariñas. (Cherry Joy D. Garma/PIA-1, Ilocos Norte)