Friday, May 23, 2008 Arroyo: Defeating insurgency promotes peace
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Sipalay City in southern Negros Occidental makes valid the belief that winning over insurgency advances growth.
After an afternoon of diving and sleeping in what was known as the haven of insurgents in the '80s, President Arroyo, who looked tanned and relaxed, described the tourism growth in Sipalay as "amazing."
The city was once considered as the "dreaded S in the CHICKS area."
The President was referring to the towns and cities in Negros Occidental (Candoni, Hinoba-an, Ilog, Cauayan, Kabankalan, and Sipalay), known to be rebel-infested at the height of the insurgency in the 80s.
Arroyo was in Bacolod Thursday as guest speaker in the two-day Peace and Security Assembly for Western Visayas. She spent Wednesday afternoon diving at Campomanes Bay and sleeping over with friends in Sipalay City.
Arroyo said what happened in Sipalay simply proves that "the way to peace isn't through the barrel of a gun. Rather, it begins with providing jobs, food on the table and human dignity."
"Central to that success is to invest in people, in education, healthcare, roads, bridges, and schools. And we are making those investments," she added.
She also urged local government officials to initiate localized peace talks while the National Government continues to pursue talks and "hopefully a conclusion of a peace agreement with the CPP-NPA/NDF."
Arroyo ordered the full implementation of the existing peace agreement with the breakaway rebel group Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB).
"We want our peace agreement with the RPA to bring a new era of economic development," citing RPA stronghold barangays in 15 towns and cities in Negros Occidental and some in Iloilo province and Aklan.
"We have achieved a great deal. Western Visayas is vastly improved in terms of security and economic growth," Arroyo said.
She urged local government units that the only way to achieve a vision of becoming a First World country is "to defeat insurgency."
"The communist rebels have spent years as a low-level threat. It is time for their disruption and violation of human rights to be put to rest so that the nation can move," the President said.
"They (rebels) are responsible for a wide range of human rights abuses. If we are to become a first world country, we have to put a stop to their ideological nonsense and their criminal acts once and for all," she added. (Ma. Ester Espina)
