EFFORTS VS. INSURGENCY. Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino (third from left, seated) listens as National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon, vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, delivers a message during the Visayan Island Group Cabinet Officers for Regional Development and Security Summit in Cebu City on Wednesday (Oct. 16, 2019). Dino commended the efforts of the Regional Task Forces to End Local Communist Armed Conflict in addressing insurgency problem in Negros Island. (Photo contributed by Danjick Lim)
CEBU CITY – The presidential assistant for the Visayas on Friday said that efforts of the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) in Regions 6 and 7 to make the entire Negros Island insurgency-free are on the right track.
Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino, the presidential assistant for the Visayas, highlighted the partnership between regional task forces in Central Visayas and Western Visayas in solving local communist armed activities in two Negros Island provinces – Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental.
“I emphasized in my speech last Wednesday during the CORDS (Cabinet Officers for Regional Development and Security) summit that we have an existing collaboration between the RTF-ELCAC in Region 6 and Region 7. The partnership will bolster effort to end insurgency in Negros (island),” Dino said in a phone interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
According to him, the “convergence between RTF 6 and 7 is significant since insurgency is a cross-border issue in the Negros Island, as the communist terrorist groups flee from Negros Oriental to Negros Occidental, and vice versa”.
The convergence, he said, will start in giving out basic services to the people.
The Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) conducted the Serbisyong Malasakit to Escalante City, Negros Occidental during the Northern Negros Peace Summit last Sept. 20, he said.
The event was held after the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG-7) launched the “Dagyawan sa Barangay” in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental on Sept. 10 as part of the programs initiated under the Basic Service Cluster of the RTF-ELCAC 7.
Apart from the Serbisyo Malasakit, the regional task force conducted a “Talakayan at Serbisyo Caravan” in Guihulngan City and Kanlaon City in Negros Oriental.
Guihulngan and Kanlaon are among the two local government units in Negros Oriental considered by the military and the police as rebel-infested, while Escalante is also identified as among the three towns in the northern part of Negros Occidental facing insurgency problem.
Dino said the DILG-7-led Basic Services Cluster has been working closely with OPAV in the Serbisyo Caravan, a program started by OPAV in 2016. Organized simultaneously conducted a Serbisyo Caravan in Pinamungajan, Mandaue City, Mactan Island, Bantayan Island, and Isabel, Leyte in March of 2017 as a “birthday gift” of President Rodrigo Duterte to the townsfolk.
He said the services in the Serbisyo Caravan include medical and dental, licensing and issuance of certificates, job hiring and placement, provision of seedlings and fingerlings, free medicines, haircut, massage and other services.
On Monday, Dino revealed that a total of PHP30-million worth of anti-insurgency projects will be implemented in Central Visayas, particularly in Negros Oriental.
“The Visayas Islands have very promising sector in tourism, manufacturing, real estate, agriculture and services. We must address the problem on insurgency that hinders the full potential of those sectors for some decades now, sidetracking the Visayans from real and sustainable progress,” he said.
Dino reiterated during the Visayan island group CORDS Summit at Golden Princes on Wednesday that insurgency in Negros Island must end by 2021. (PNA)
