ILOILO City – To address the insurgency woes in the region, six agencies under the Peace, Law Enforcement and Development Support Cluster in Western Visayas have signed their Implementation Plan yesterday (Implan) at Camp Delgado here.
Different government agencies have been tapped to help the law enforcement units to fight against rebels.
These include the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine News Agency and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Police Regional Office 6 director Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, who co-chairs the cluster, said
the Implan synchronizes the efforts of peace, law enforcement, and development agencies to address the country’s problem on insurgency.
According to Pamuspusan, the Implan synchronizes the efforts of peace, law enforcement, and development agencies to address the country’s problem on insurgency.
The emphasis of the Implan is to really put the coordination of the different law enforcement agencies in our fight against insurgency, he said.
The 12 clusters cited on the ImPlan were the following:
* Local government empowerment cluster
* International engagement cluster
* Legal cooperation cluster
* Strategic communication cluster
* Basic services cluster
* Livelihood and poverty alleviation cluster
* Infrastructure and resources management cluster
* AFP PNP peace and development cluster
* Situational awareness and knowledge management cluster
* Localized peace and engagement cluster
* ECLIP and amnesty program cluster
* Sectoral unification capacity living and empowerment cluster
According to Pamuspusan, the police have been “more aggressive” in its coordination with the Army.
Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division commander Major General Dinoh Dolina, for his part, said they called the support of other agencies to help them in their fight against communist terrorist, who are still persistent.
“The communist terrorists are still persistent despite that we exhausted our resources. With this, the “whole of the nation approach” has been conceptualized and seriously implemented to bring down the terrorists to their braking point,” Dolina said.
Dolina said that they signed the RTF-ELCAC in relation to the Executive Order 70 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on December 2018, which states that “institutionalizing the whole-of-the nation approach in attaining inclusive and sustainable peace creating a national task force to end local communists armed conflict, and directing the adoption of a national peace frame work.”
Dolina said that with this directive, they can focus in areas that are not yet cleared from the terrorists.
Based on the record of the AFP, thee provinces have been cleared and ready for peace and development.
These provinces include Guimaras, Aklan and Antique, while Iloilo and Capiz are still subject for AFP and PNP’s clearing operations.
“There are still presence of terrorists in Capiz and Iloilo but we also have to put our focus to Negros Occidental through this task force with other agencies intervention,” Dolina said./PN