Panay News

Insurgency free

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LET’S I MAGINE f or a f ew moments that the Philippine­s is insurgency free, meaning 99.9% no longer inflicted with this more than 50-year-old communist insurgency nonsense.

What comes to mind would be a parallel in terms of economic progress and respectabi­lity with Singapore or at the very least Indonesia, meaning we are no longer the flavor of the month of these leftists / so-called human rights advocates from Europe / “United Nations” who gatecrash anytime, demanding for the repeal of the Anti-Terrorism Law and the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

I suppose economic progress is very much doable with a stable peace and order scenario and we’re getting to it much sooner than later.

The “sticky” part would be getting rid of those politician­s who’s first order of the day when they assume office is “in aid of re-election”.

We need political leaders who put the country first and not politician­s who put themselves first.

We are fortunate that the current president’s predecesso­r, Rodrigo Duterte, left the country in good hands and a relatively stable state.

Love him or hate him, there is no denying during his watch that the Anti-Terrorism Law and the NTF- ELCAC were the needed missing ingredient to finally end this insurgency nonsense.

And if you’re fully vaccinated, mask-free and enjoying your Caffe Latte in some coffeeshop, it’s because the “much-maligned” Duterte saved us from COVID-19.

Moving on, two years into the watch of President Bongbong Marcos Jr., what was once 89 active guerilla fronts, the AFP/ NTF-ELCAC successful­ly dismantled 78, reducing their strength to just 11 weakened fronts.

Despite this irritating nonsense, the administra­tion of President BBM was able to achieve a lot. Imagine what can be more accomplish­ed free of the irritation.

Check out these out:

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority ( PEZA) reported the approval of P2.845- billion investment­s for March.

PEZA Director General Tereso Panga said the approval of the investment­s reflected the agency’s bullishnes­s to attract more investment­s this year under the Marcos administra­tion.

It is 21.8 percent higher than in the same period last year at P2.343 billion.

In 2023, the Philippine­s achieved a high investment rate – 25 percent growth, or P175.7 billion, increasing from P140.7-billion base figure in 2022. Last year, it posted 25 percent increase to P175.7 billion.

All PEZA’s current indicators are up for exports and employment, manifestin­g the Philippine­s’ upward trajectory for 2024, something to be expected for the year and onwards because of its excellent gross domestic product ( GDP) performanc­e since 2022.

The Philippine­s happens to have the highest GDP growth rate in ASEAN since 2022, three years in a row now. That makes the Philippine­s one of the best performing economies in the region.

Incidental­ly, President Marcos Jr. maintains a high approval rating. The latest Social Weather Stations survey showed 65 percent of adult Filipinos are satisfied with his performanc­e as President.

Meanwhile, under the watch of Mayor Jerry Treñas, “I Am Iloilo City” has been insurgency-free for almost a decade. Without the irritation the Ilonggos concentrat­ed in improving their lives and uplifting the city.

Iloilo City is the country’s Top 4 Overall Most Competitiv­e Highly Urbanized City ( HUC) and Top 1 outside the National Capital Region (NCR).

It is one of the most bicyclefri­endly cities in the Philippine­s for 2023.

It has been declared a Creative

City of Gastronomy by UNESCO ( United Nations Educationa­l, Scientific and Cultural Organizati­on) Creative Cities Network, the first city from the Philippine­s to be designated as such.

Of course, Iloilo proudly stands as the fourth richest city in terms of GDP outside Metro Manila.

Finally, insurgency-free means the Frappuccin­o-infused “useful idiots” in the University of the Philippine­s can concentrat­e on being “eskolar ng bayan” and not pseudo communists, while the usual suspects in Congress will no longer be there to undermine the government using government resources, hopefully./

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