ILOILO City – The insurgency in Panay Island would have been quelled already when President Rodrigo Duterte ends his six-year term on June 2022, according to the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division (3ID).
The decades-old armed struggle is being addressed through the “concerted efforts” of both the national and local governments, sectoral groups and the people of Panay, said Major Cenon Pancito III, 3ID spokesperson.
“All the concerned agencies and the people should participate to achieve and maintain peace and order in the island,” he added.
Duterte issued Executive Order No. 70 in December 2018 establishing a “whole-of-nation approach” in ending the local communist armed conflict through the creation of a national taskforce that will take the lead in institutionalizing a national peace framework.
Records of the 3ID showed 49 villages in Panay Island yet to be “cleared” out of 241 barangays in Aklan, Capiz and Iloilo provinces determined by the 3ID to have “insurgency affectation” since 2016.
The province of Antique was cleared of insurgents in 2018 yet.
Panay Island has a total of 3,111 barangays.
“The 3ID is making headways accomplishing its marching order to finally put an end to the more than five decades of fighting insurgents in its area of operation with the current mindset of addressing the root causes,” Pancito said, referring to “social issues”.
The whole-of-nation approach in ending the local armed conflict is the best of the solution, he said./PN