ENDING INSURGENCY. Antique Provincial Police Office deputy director, Lt. Col. Norby Escobar says on Tuesday (Oct. 1, 2019) that five considered insurgency-threatened municipalities in Antique will be the priority of the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC) in the delivery of basic services and road infrastructures. The PTF-ELCAC was created as Antique's response to the Whole of the Nation Approach. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique -- The Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC) will prioritize the five-insurgency threatened municipalities of Antique in the delivery of basic services and road infrastructures to prevent the New People’s Army (NPA) to turn these into their lairs.
Antique Provincial Police Office (APPO) deputy director. Lt. Col. Norby Escobar identified the five towns as San Remigio, Sibalom, Hamtic, Sebaste, and Culasi.
“The PTF-ELCAC is a convergence effort of the different national government agencies to bring the basic services and even road improvements to the hinterland areas to let the people there to also feel that the government is taking care of them,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
He said that the PTF-ELCAC is the counterpart of the provincial government in the whole-of-nation approach framework, intended to address the problems on areas affected by insurgency.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Antique provincial director Cheryl Tacda said that her office is very supportive of the PTF-ELCAC for the provincial government to give focus on addressing the insurgency problem.
“The PTF-ELCAC as part of its activities will conduct consultations with the people to know the deliverables by the local government units,” Tacda said.
Escobar, on the other hand, said the community could help address the insurgency problem by convincing the NPA members to surrender or reporting them to the police and the Army about their presence.
The PTF-ELCAC was created through Executive Order 119 signed by Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao on Sept 26, 2019. (PNA)
