Western Visayas has over 500 volunteer probation aides
The Parole and Probation Administration in Western Visayas said that Region 6 has over 500 Volunteer Probation Aides who help the government rehabilitate and reintegrate a probationer, parolee and pardonee into the community.
Regional Director Emetri J. Amoroso of the Parole and Administration (PPA) disclosed in a PIA interview that these volunteers bolsters PPA’s mission to promote the rehabilitation and development of PPA clients through a competent corp of volunteers service network using the holistic approach in volunteer and community resource development.
“They are really of great help because in the region, we only have twenty-six Probation and Parole offices. Of that number, eleven of our offices are manned each by one person who also serve as the chief, investigating officer, supervising officer and clerk,” Director Emitri said.
Emetri said the Volunteer Probation Aide Program was established in 1976 through Presidential Decree No. 968 otherwise known as the Probation Law of 1976 which authorizes the appointment of citizens of good repute and probity to act as probation aides to assist in the supervision of probationers, parolees and pardonees.
The PPA director said that EO 468 issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2003 revitalized the Volunteer Probation Aide (VPA) Program maximizing community involvement and participation in the community-based program of Parole and Probation in the prevention of crime, the treatment of offenders, and criminal justice administration.
These volunteers help us attend to some 3,000 to 3,500 probationers; and 1,500 to 2,000 parolees and conditional pardonees. Annually, our clients range between 4,000 to 5,000.
Not all probationers, parolees and pardonees are granted freedom “because human as we are, there are some who violate certain conditions that the court has imposed,” Emetri said as she stressed that “if you compare the rate of revocation, nationwide, this averages only in less than two percent”. (PIA6/T.Villavert)
