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Barangay officials and community leaders of the three barangays of Tacloban City listen intently to the orientation being conducted by the DSWD, in coordination with the City Social Welfare Office. The activity was held last week at the San Jose Barangay Hall of the city.Perpetrators, as well as victims of domestic violence, are both victims of cultural and socio – economic situation of society!

With the DSWD coming up with a program designed to help perpetrators to be reintegrated and be productive members of their family and society,   Region Eight is now set to implement the so –called “Counselling Services for Rehabilitation of Perpetrators of Domestic Violence (CSRPDV).

The Project is the DSWD’s contribution to Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004, which mandates the DSWD to develop and provide rehabilitative counselling and treatment of offenders towards constructive ways of coping with anger and emotional outburst and reforming their ways.

Focal Person Lolit Dadap revealed that the Field Office has identified seven cities to be piloted in the region – areas which have high incidence of cases of domestic violence, the willingness of barangay leaders to undertake the program, the presence of men support groups like the Men Opposed to Violence Everywhere (MOVE) and the support of the five pillars of the juvenile justice system.

These cities are Tacloban, Ormoc, Baybay, Maasin, Catbalogan, Calbayog, and Borongan. The Field Office is now in the process of conducting capability building activities to enable the program implementers and volunteers to effectively perform their tasks, in the management of the rehabilitation of the perpetrators.

Dadap further bared that part of said activities is the advocacy in the organization of a men’s support group like the Men Opposed to Violence Everywhere (MOVE) at the barangay level. Such group, she added, will take charge of conducting necessary awareness campaigns and rehabilitation sessions with the perpetrators.

The 30 – member MOVE Field Office Eight Chapter, under president Federico Pagayanan, is actively involved in the series of capability building activities currently being conducted in the pilot areas. Already, the team has made its rounds, starting on April 20 in Ormoc, and ended today, May 25, in Catbalogan and Calbyaog.

The MOVE is an organization of principled men from various sectors of society which actively supports the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), in an effort to eradicate gender violence and discrimination.