PEACE 911, an initiative of the City Mayor’s Office, will be expanded to the whole Davao City on its 5th year founding anniversary.
The Peace 911 initiative was made to address the needs of the local communities in the city, especially the geographically isolated and depressed areas (Gida).
The original mandate of the initiative under former Davao City mayor Sara Duterte is to address the needs of the residents in the Paquibato area.
“We will operate city-wide, we will operate in the city now, especially in the areas which are prone to conflict - that’s Marilog, Calinan, and Toril, so these are the priority areas of Peace 911,” lawyer Jonah Presto, Peace 911 focal person, said in an ambush interview.
Presto also said there is a need to intensify its campaign against insurgency as they expand to a city-wide scope.
Presto added that to prevent insurgency groups from exploiting social issues in the far-flung communities to advance their interests, Peace 911 will act as a coordinating agency to address problems there.
“We have coordinators on the ground, we call them barangay coordinators, na they have to be our eyes and ears... in case there are situations where there is a conflict that rebels might use, they are there to inform us,” Presto said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
“From there and then we have to act dayon (promptly), we have to inform the LGU (local government unit), the concerned agencies, that we have to address these, otherwise mag-relapse, sayang ang gipaningkamotan nato (our efforts might put into waste) for the last years,” Presto added.
Presto also said with their expansion, they are eyeing to add more personnel in their priority areas.
“[As far as the number of personnel], dili pa ko makahatag ug exact figure (we cannot give the exact figures yet) but we are starting pa man to have coordination with the barangays and after that we are looking for the barangay coordinators na we can deploy,” Presto said.
The expansion of Peace 911 to a city-wide operation was approved as ordinance 0193-23 series of 2023, last April 13, which amends certain sections of Ordinance No. 0891-22, series of 2022.
The ordinance was also named "An Ordinance Creating the City Peace 911 sa Barangay, subject to All Laws and Existing Legal Rules and Regulations.” ICE