THE Provincial Government of Negros is now gearing for the creation of a Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NOCTF-ELCAC).
Governor Eugenio Lacson led the one-day ELCAC Planning Workshop at the Negros First Residences Function Room on Thursday, August 22.
Lacson said that they are planning measures on how to end insurgency which is in compliance to the order of President Rodrigo Duterte.
He said that it is very challenging but the provincial government is doing its share including the possibility for a localized peace talks with the New People’s Army rebels.
The ELCAC Planning Workshop was attended by Brigadier General Benedict Arevalo, 303rd Infantry Brigade Commander; Police Colonel Romeo Baleros, Negros Occidental Provincial Police Director; Dr. Ma. Lina Sanogal, Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator; mayors and vice mayors of the different cities andmunicipalities, City/Municipality Planning and Development officers, and City/Municipality SB chairperson on Peace and Order.
The said task force is in compliance with President Duterte’s proclamation of Executive Order No. 70 entitled “Institutionalizing the Whole-of-Nation Approach in attaining inclusive and sustainable peace, Creating a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and Directing the adoption of a National Peace Framework” last December 28, 2018.
Arevalo for his part said. “I’m grateful to Governor Lacson for initiating this kind of activity and I’m optimistic on the upcoming creation of Negros Occidental Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NOCTF-ELCAC) as an opportunity for us to work together as part of the government and whole-of-nation approach to address the CPP-NPA.”
“This kind of task force is to acknowledge the fact that the solution to end the insurgency problem is not in the hands of the security forces alone. So it is important that the local government units and national agencies are able to deliver their services especially to the far flung barangays who are usually being victimized by the deception and manipulation of the CPP-NPA-NDF,” Arevalo added. (TDE)