‘We have not attained complete victory against insurgency yet.’

This was how DILG XII Regional Director Josephine Cabrido- Leysa summed up the overall status of the government’s campaign against the local communist movement in the Region during the opening of the Provincial Planning Workshop on Building Sustainable Peace towards a Peaceful, Inclusive, Just and Equitable Development which was hosted by the DILG- Regional Office XII.

Addressing a crowd of more than 300 participants from various provincial LGUs, AFP, PNP and other government agencies at the Fiesta Filipino Pavilion at the Farm @ Carpenter Hill in Koronadal City, Director Leysa re-echoed the Administration’s push for the “adoption of a national peace framework” to address the threat of local communist groups.

The Planning Workshop came as a response to the direction given by DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Ano, in line with the President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s campaign of ‘ending local communist armed conflict’. The Department has already conducted similar activities in various regions of the country, with Region XII being the fifth one to do so.

Last December 2018, the Office of the President issued Executive Order No. 70 which calls for “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”.

The said EO, according to RD Leysa, “is the means to put an end to local insurgency through the "National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict" (NTF-ELCAC)”, adding that EO 70 is expected to immensely help the government in its ongoing anti-insurgency campaign.

While it is true that there have been significant progress in our campaign to end insurgency, Director Leysa continued, the complete victory is not complete YET since there are still communities that have been influenced, infiltrated, if not saturated, by the so-called ‘masa’.  Such realities, Dir. Leysa believes, require that “communities should be conflict-resilient” and this can only be done with the help of the various local and national agencies.

In her speech, Director Leysa said that the “consolidated data from ground units of the AFP indicate a total of 12,017 Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) members and supporters have been neutralized.” However, the group remains a formidable threat to isolated or far-flung communities, for example, which have never received any basic service from the government. 

Under EO 70, the National Task Force shall organize an Ad Hoc Inter-Agency or multi-sectoral clusters at the national, regional and local levels, enlist the assistance of the any department, bureau, office, agency or instrumentality of the government including LGUs, in accordance with their respective mandates, in the implementation of the Framework and develop strategic communication, advocacy and peace constituency plans in case of ceasefire, as well as, capacity-building measures.

EO 70 will also enable local chief executives and local special bodies to engage and facilitate local peace engagements or negotiations and interventions, Director Leysa added.

Dir. Leysa also thanked the resource persons who came all the way from the Central Office and other regions whom she believes will help “pave the way to map out the necessary course of actions in achieving” sustainable peace in the Region.

Resource persons for the Workshop include the following: Usec. Bernardo C. Florece, DILG- Undersecretary for Peace and Order, Director Dennis Villasenior, MNSA, assistant director, National Barangay Operations Office (NBOO), NEDA XII Regional Director Ms. Teresita Socorro- Ramos, NICA XII Director Eduardo Marquez, Ms. Maricar Cervantes, Executive Assistant to Undersecretary Allen Capuyan, Executive Director of National Task Force, Ending Local Communist Armed conflict (ELCAC) , Major Mark Anthony U. Ruby, Executive Assistant to the SILG on Security and Operations. Facilitators and moderators from the DILG - Central Office and other regional offices were also around to help in consolidating and synthesizing the inputs from the various participating groups, formed according to their places of origin or assignment in the region.

Director Leysa challenged each participant to display “love for the nation” as they become a part of the undertaking”, adding that “the Workshop will be all the more meaningful” if patriotism is emphasized.”###