by Priam Nepomuceno/PNA
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Thursday expressed support for calls of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to provinces to create their own anti-insurgency bodies.
“Yes, this will hasten the local peace process and encourage more communist terrorists to give up the armed struggle and opt for peaceful means of ending the 50-year-old insurgency,” AFP public affairs office chief Col. Noel Detoyato told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) when asked on whether the move will be helpful to the military’s ongoing campaign against the New People’s Army (NPA) communist rebels.
Through this measure, the military official said cascading the benefits and other forms of support for surrendering NPA members and supporters will be made much easier.
“Also, benefits for the returning rebels will also be responsive because it will be awarded to them with simpler and faster procedures since they are local constituents of the respective provinces,” the AFP official added.
Another advantage of all 81 provinces having their own anti-insurgency bodies is that their respective provincial governments can address problems of local rebels.
Earlier, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año urged the country’s provinces to create their respective task forces to combat insurgency issues in their respective areas.
“With no less than President Rodrigo R. Duterte himself taking the role as National Task Force chairperson, provincial governments should follow his lead by taking more active and decisive actions to counter communist terrorist groups through the creation of a provincial task forces,” he added.
In December last year, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 70, which institutionalized a whole-of-nation approach in dealing with the insurgency, through the creation of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
