By Joy Gabrido June 6, 2019 CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – Secretary for Interior and Local Government (SILG) Eduardo Año commended Calabarzon f...
June 6, 2019
CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – Secretary for Interior and Local Government (SILG) Eduardo Año commended Calabarzon for being the forerunner in creating the regional and provincial task forces against Communist Terrorist Groups (CTGs) in the region.
The provinces that pioneered in creating their respective Provincial Task Force (PNT) are Cavite, Laguna and Quezon.
“But, of course, there are still a lot of works to be done that’s why I am here as your Cabinet Secretary Officer supervising the Regional Task Force,” the DILG Secretary pointed out during the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) Meeting held at Camp Vicente Lim on May 17.
He said his job is to ensure that the RTF is aligned with the National Task Force (NTF) and to give advice in order to succeed in its endeavor to finally end local communist armed conflict.
The Secretary said he expects more meetings to be conducted by the members of the RTF-ELCAC to form clusters under the task force and suggested to mirror the composition of the NTF.
The RTF-ELCAC eyes the confirmation and re-confirmation of the newly and re-elected governors of the provinces on their respective PTFs and the activation of task forces in the provinces of Batangas and Rizal.
Moreover, the RTF is tasked to formulate a comprehensive campaign plan to be adopted by these PTFs.
“It is really how to infuse the Whole-of-Nation Approach into everything and we also have to make sure that NGOs and private organizations (among others) will also support us,” Año said, emphasizing the need to engage contractors, businessmen, and private citizens and encourage them to stop providing extortion money to CTGs.
They should instead seek assistance and protection from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in case of threats.
Aside from initiating regional and provincial task forces, the region is continuously succeeding in dismantling guerilla fronts having reportedly only one left for the whole of Calabarzon.
In fact, part of the program was the ceremonial distribution of the Enhanced Comprehensive Localized Integration Program (E-CLIP) to 20 former rebels who surrendered to the authorities. Seventeen of these were from the Militia ng Bayan and three were from the New People’s Army (NPA).
Año said most of the rebels do not know the efforts of the government to help them out, stressing that most of them want to surrender but do not know how to and are scared of the military and police.
Hence, he said the need for a task force consisting of collaborating agencies to reinforce and reach out to them and urge them to peacefully surrended.
The Secretary said the goal is to end communist terrorism before the change of Administration in 2022 since there will no longer be any existing peace negotiation by then.
When it happens, according to him, the government and its stakeholders can finally concentrate on development. “We have so many things to do but I think the path is very clear, our objective is very clear, and with all of us, we can do this together!” (Joy Gabrido, PIA4A)
CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – Secretary for Interior and Local Government (SILG) Eduardo Año commended Calabarzon for being the forerunner in creating the regional and provincial task forces against Communist Terrorist Groups (CTGs) in the region.
The provinces that pioneered in creating their respective Provincial Task Force (PNT) are Cavite, Laguna and Quezon.
“But, of course, there are still a lot of works to be done that’s why I am here as your Cabinet Secretary Officer supervising the Regional Task Force,” the DILG Secretary pointed out during the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) Meeting held at Camp Vicente Lim on May 17.
He said his job is to ensure that the RTF is aligned with the National Task Force (NTF) and to give advice in order to succeed in its endeavor to finally end local communist armed conflict.
The Secretary said he expects more meetings to be conducted by the members of the RTF-ELCAC to form clusters under the task force and suggested to mirror the composition of the NTF.
The RTF-ELCAC eyes the confirmation and re-confirmation of the newly and re-elected governors of the provinces on their respective PTFs and the activation of task forces in the provinces of Batangas and Rizal.
Moreover, the RTF is tasked to formulate a comprehensive campaign plan to be adopted by these PTFs.
“It is really how to infuse the Whole-of-Nation Approach into everything and we also have to make sure that NGOs and private organizations (among others) will also support us,” Año said, emphasizing the need to engage contractors, businessmen, and private citizens and encourage them to stop providing extortion money to CTGs.
They should instead seek assistance and protection from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in case of threats.
Aside from initiating regional and provincial task forces, the region is continuously succeeding in dismantling guerilla fronts having reportedly only one left for the whole of Calabarzon.
In fact, part of the program was the ceremonial distribution of the Enhanced Comprehensive Localized Integration Program (E-CLIP) to 20 former rebels who surrendered to the authorities. Seventeen of these were from the Militia ng Bayan and three were from the New People’s Army (NPA).
Año said most of the rebels do not know the efforts of the government to help them out, stressing that most of them want to surrender but do not know how to and are scared of the military and police.
Hence, he said the need for a task force consisting of collaborating agencies to reinforce and reach out to them and urge them to peacefully surrended.
The Secretary said the goal is to end communist terrorism before the change of Administration in 2022 since there will no longer be any existing peace negotiation by then.
When it happens, according to him, the government and its stakeholders can finally concentrate on development. “We have so many things to do but I think the path is very clear, our objective is very clear, and with all of us, we can do this together!” (Joy Gabrido, PIA4A)
