The programs of Parole and Probation Administration of the Department of Justice are being strengthened through volunteerism and involving the community and non-government organizations, Manuel Co, PPA administrator, said yesterday.

Co was in Bacolod City for the Regional Congress and Training Institute for the Volunteer Probation Aide Program that started Wednesday and ends tomorrow at Buenos Aires Mountain Resort in Bago City.

He said PPA is implementing an individualized community-based correction treatment with 12,000 recruited volunteers in the country handling an average of 50,000 clients.

Emetri Amoroso, PPA region VI director, said the program is assisting probationers, parolees, and conditional pardonees who have been released to the community under the supervision and control of the probation office.

In Negros Occidental, 1,607 probationers and almost 600 parolees and pardonees are under the program. Around 500 PVAs are helping them with an average of three clients per PVA, Amoroso said.

She added that PVAs are usually residents of the community where the client is residing.

PVAs do not receive compensation or allowance from the administration and they count on their sincerity in helping those who have been jailed.

Co said he also hopes that, after the conference, PPAs will be equipped with necessary skills to help even more clients and give them new hope.*LTG

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