Lockdowns and quarantines have not hampered efforts to reach out to partners and other players involved in the Localization of Executive Order No. 70 (LEO 70) with a series of virtual meetings that were conducted during the past few months.
“The advocacy on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) has been sustained by the Department and we have utilized every available Apps for teleconferencing to ensure that our efforts will not be paralyzed, even by the pandemic,” DILG XII Regional Director Josephine Cabrido-Leysa, CESO III explained.
“At the outset, we had 1,325 barangays as our 2020 nationwide target. Early this year, Region XII has 63 target barangays and in August, the NTF added 40 more barangays and it translates to adjustments, as far as our implementation plans and programs are concerned,” Director Leysa elaborated further.
DILG XII heads five (5) Line of Efforts (LOE) clusters and as chair of the Local Government Cluster, it played host to a series of orientation to the various Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP) Teams and Barangay Task Forces.
It started with the Local Task Force (LTF) Chairperson’s Conference on July 23, 2020, which was attended by the Local Chief Executives of the 4 provinces, 2 Cities (General Santos City and Kidapawan City) and 12 municipalities.
Succeeding virtual orientations were held on July 24, 27 and 28, 2020. This time, the attendees were the RCSP Core Team, Department Heads and Local Functionaries of the target provinces, cities and municipalities and barangay officials and functionaries of the 63 target barangays in the Region.
To ensure that the RCSP Teams of the 8 municipalities and barangay officials and functionaries of the additional 40 target barangays are on-board and to have deeper understanding on the various phases of the RCSP, DILG XII, conducted another series of orientations on August 13, 2020 to August 17, 2020.
LGMED Asst. Division Chief Ian Jon Clemente, the LEO 70 Regional Focal Person who acted as the moderator during the series of conferences said that “almost all participants have adjusted to the new modality of conducting meetings” but points to the minor handicap of ‘poor connectivity and reception’ in some places as the main problem.
“What is encouraging, though, is that our participants can manage to get the necessary update and guidelines in the safety of their own communities. We just hope that better internet connectivity becomes available to all and will be the new standard soon”, Mr. Clemente clarified.
During the last leg of the series of orientations conducted via Zoom Teleconferencing, RD Leysa posed the challenge and emphasized that there is a need to step up the government’s efforts and re-affirm the commitments of the Regional Line Agencies (RLAs) in order to achieve the end-state of the EO 70 which is “Sustained Peace and Prosperity in Communities” particularly in conflict-threatened and vulnerable communities.##
