EO 70 to end ‘treacherous life cycle’ of insurgency, say

MANILA – Lauding the significant gains of the National Task Force to End Local Communist (lNTF ELCAC), the newlyinstalled Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is confident that the multipronged approach of Executive Order 70 will put an end to the treacherous life cycle of the more than five decades of insurgency.

Speaking during the AFP Change of Command ceremony on Jan. 4, Lt. General Felimon Santos, said unlike in the past when local chief executives left the insurgency problem solely to the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to deal with, EO involves all government agencies from the national to the barangay level with delineated roles and responsibilities in the whole-of-nation approach.

“Government agencies and their corresponding units at all levels cooperate, interact, support, provide practical solutions and solve problems and issues on the ground that are being exploited by these communist terrorists in order to stir-up our countrymen to fight against our government through armed struggle,” Santos said.

He added that EO 70, which was signed by President R. Duterte in Decem ber 2018, created NTF ELCAC that institutionalized a whole-of-nation approach in obtaining exclusive and sustainable peace-giving us an effective solution against communist-terrorists.

“This multi-pronged approach addresses the motivation for insurgency and will hopefully put an end to its treacherous life cycle,” he said, adding that by doing so, there will be no reason for the Communist Party of the Philippines, its armed wing the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front to agitate, organize and mobilize the vulnerable sectors and communities.