IN LINE with the thrust of Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. for "social justice," the Iloilo Province is set to form an inter-agency task force to end local insurgency.
Defensor met with Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Iloilo Director Teodora Sumagaysay, Philippine Army's 301st Brigade Commander General Alberto C. Desoyo, Iloilo Police Provincial Office Director Roland Vilela, and representatives from the Philippine Coast Guard and the National Bureau of Investigation on October 1 to discuss the creation of the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-Elcac).
Based on DILG Memorandum Circular 2019-125, a joint resolution of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) and the Provincial Development Council (PDC) is needed for the creation of the task force. It will be chaired by the governor.
"Governor Defensor suggested that there will be a separate meeting of the PPOC on October 3. And then the resolution of PPOC will be submitted to PDC for approval," Sumagaysay said.
The governor will then create 12 clusters. Each cluster will be composed of government agencies with related functions. The governor should also ensure that the task force is replicated at the municipal level.
Sumagaysay said the local task force is aimed at achieving sustainable and inclusive peace through good governance.
"In the province of Iloilo, it is good because the thrust of Governor Defensor is social justice. So the framework is there. All we have to do is make the implementation plan," she said.
The move was in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's Executive Order 70, creating a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) issued on December 4, 2018. It aims at having a whole-of-nation approach in attaining inclusive and sustainable peace. (PR)