RPOC TO HARMONIZE PROGRAMS VS INSURGENCY

The council agrees to have national agencies and LGUs come up with a list of priority programs, projects, and activities for the implementation of the Whole of Nation Approach to attain sustainable peace

NATIONAL government agencies, local government units, and other key stakeholders are set to harmonize efforts in a bid to effectively counter the long-running communist insurgency.

During the Regional Peace and Order Council’s first full council meeting on Wednesday, January 15, in Davao City, the council agreed to have national agencies and LGUs come up with a list of priority programs, projects, and activities (PPAs) for the year 2020 in support to the implementation of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order 70 or the Whole of Nation Approach to attain sustainable peace and to end the local communist armed conflict.

RPOC Chairperson Davao Oriental Governor Nelson Dayanghirang, who strongly pushed the proposal, emphasized the urgency of coming up with concrete PPAs and setting timeline in order to fast track interventions addressing the decades-long insurgency problem.

With the motion approved, national agencies together with local chief executives, as well as some members of the private sector are expected to sit down for a workshop slated in February or in the first week of March this year.

“I am soliciting your inputs on how we can implement the EO70 with more detailed efficiency. There will be no shortcuts on our campaign, no cutting corners,” Gov. Dayanghirang said as he addressed the members of the council.

The aim of the upcoming workshop is to ensure that each agency will be able to identify what programs to implement and where to focus its implementation.

“We have to move in the same direction and we must synchronize all efforts,” he said.

Dayanghirang made special mention to agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), and Department of Labor and Employment, among others, whose livelihood programs truly makes a difference among the lives of poor people.

Dayanghirang further urged his fellow members to be proactive and serious in the effort towards ending insurgency since Region Eleven is the home of the President. “It is incumbent upon us not to be slack in this campaign but to be in the forefront, especially so that this is the region of the President. We must be the model, the main actors of the Whole of Nation Approach. We must not fail the President,” he added./