Insurgency efforts in Eastern Visayas intensified
The Armed Forces of the Philippines reported that four out of five remaining active guerilla fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army in the country are in Samar Island
TACLOBAN CITy — National Security Advisor Clarita Carlos is eyeing to intensify efforts to end insurgency as she led the Regional Development and Security Forum of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
Carlos engaged the local chief executives in Eastern Visayas to a dialogue and solicit their participation in the government’s final push to eliminate the local communist insurgency.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines reported that four out of five remaining active guerilla fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army in the country are in Samar Island.
Governors Sharee Ann Tan of Samar, Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar, Jerico Petilla of Leyte, and representatives of the governors of Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, and Biliran discussed the efforts of their provincial governments as chairpersons of their respective Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
The provincial governments of the six provinces in Eastern Visayas also reported their accomplishments for the first semester and their concerns, particularly on the limited funding of projects in conflict-affected areas.
Carlos also looked into the status of the implementation of the Support to Barangay Development Program.
Six barangays from four municipalities in the province of Northern Samar are recipients of the SBDP projects. Each barangay was provided with P20 million to build farm-to-market roads, health stations, water systems, school buildings, electrification and establish livelihood projects.
On 12 November, Carlos traveled for almost three hours by land to Catbalogan City for a dialogue with former CPP-NPA cadres to ask about their concerns and solicit ideas on how to fasttrack the efforts to end local communist armed conflict in the region.
Alma Gabin, former deputy education secretary of CPP-NPA-NDF Eastern Visayas Committee and now president of the Eastern Visayas Peace Builder and Development Federation presented the former rebels prevailing concerns like the implementation of the program.