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Army, PNP join hands vs. insurgency in North, Central Luzon

FORT MAGSAYSAY, Nueva Ecija – Military and police authorities on Wednesday started to draw up collective strategic plans and programs that could effectively counter the insurgency problem in North and Central Luzon.

The 7th Infantry (Kaugnay) Division (7ID) of the Philippine Army, together with the Philippine National Police (PNP), kicked off a three-day action plan workshop with an objective to realign the direction of programs and activities of the government that could address the issues being exploited by the communists.

The participants are the Civil Military Operations (CMOs) officers from 7ID brigades and battalions and Police Civil Relations Officers of the PNP provincial police offices from Region 1, Region 3 and Abra.

Major General Lenard T. Agustin, commander of 7ID, who was the keynote speaker during the opening ceremony here, said he is prioritizing the efforts of the CMO than any other forms of operations of their division.

Agustin cited the significant contribution of the intelligence and combat operations of the CMOs.

He said the recent accomplishment of 7ID on the recovery of 18 firearms and the surrender and capture of 18 Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) terrorists in the first quarter of the year can be attributed to CMO.

Agustin told the participants it is now the right time to formulate plans against the CNTs as the government is more aggressive in countering insurgency problems.

He particularly cited the government’s programs such as the implementation of Executive Order No. 70 and the creation of Task Force Balik-Loob that have been formulated to end the 50 years of war being waged by the Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) against the government.

"I really look forward to the tangible results that will be delivered by our line units and our PNP counterparts after this workshop. I believe I have already challenged them and emphasized that we should really end insurgency in our area of responsibility,” Agustin said.

"Solving the issues exploited by the CTGs is one of the important approaches on how to counter insurgency. There are so many concepts that can be applied to solve the country's insurgency problem that have existed for five decades now. That's the beauty of CMO, the ways are limitless,” he added. (PR)

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