NEWLY installed Police Regional Office-Cordillera (PRO-COR) director Brigadier General R’win Pagkalinawan is set to focus on ending local communist terrorist group (CTG), strengthening police presence on social media and the proper use of funds.
Pagkalinawan, who replaced Brigadier General Israel Iphraim Dickson, said his mission is to accomplish the three areas of concern in the region.
Dickson will be assigned as the directorate for integrated police operations (DIPO) for Vizayas.
“The question is why did destiny lead me back here? Maybe because I have a mission to accomplish and to finish the task. I was on vacation for eight months in the maritime where I got to visit the beautiful beaches in the country, and after my vacation, I am now back here in PRO-COR,” Pagkalinawan said.
Pagkalinawan was deputy regional director operations and administration at PRO-COR for two years and six months prior to his assignment as head of the PNP’s maritime division which played a role during the recent Taal Volcano eruption in Batangas.
“Executive Order 70 which seeks to end local insurgency started in 2018 but this was already being discussed here at PRO - COR in 2017, and in my research, it was in 2008 when Bokod Municipality came up with a condemnation of the NPA atrocities when they ambushed a team of Philippine Army personnel where six died. It did not reverberate because they were just a municipality who implemented it,” Pagkalinawan added.
Pagkalinawan said that during his time as DRDO and DRDA, he made sure the whole of Mountain Province will have an order patterned after Executive Order 70 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.
Sagada was the last one to come up with a condemnation.
“When we say peace zone, it should be the whole of the Philippines and not Sagada only and I think this is what we have or finish and EO 70 should be implemented. If we can make them surrender without firing a single shot, then we will do it, perhaps the battle is no longer in the mountains but in the social media which what I intend to do,” Pagkalinawan said.