PA soldiers acting as bridges of good governance, local exec says

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 15): PA soldiers acting as bridges of good governance, local exec says

The city administration says the presence of government soldiers in some barangays here is part of their services as “bridges” of good local governance, contrary to claims by militant groups that it is an act of “urban militarization.”

“These soldiers serve as the city government’s bridges or links to the people because they alert us on the needs of our constituents. They let us know concerns and wishes ventilated upon them by communities with whom they work closely in their outreach program,” City Mayor Geraldine Rosal clarified over the weekend.

She said the soldiers are conducting an outreach program that provides education, livelihood skills training, health services, community development and peace-building initiatives in at least seven barangays of the city.

“We opened these barangays to these men in uniform for their outreach program as the Armed Forces of the Philippines partners with the city government in implementing projects that cater to the needs of our poor residents,” Rosal said.

Perhaps, the militant groups falsely accusing this undertaking as a form of “urban militarization” should “give the soldiers a chance as they deserve it to prove themselves as different from what others think they are,” she stressed.

Rosal said the soldiers now are different from those that they knew before as today’s military is not only involved in security works to protect the state but also as campaigner for peace and implementer of development projects that now benefit poor communities towards freedom from extreme poverty.

According to Brig. Gen. Ricardo Visaya, the commanding general of the PA’s 901st Infantry Brigade based in Barangay Villahermosa of the nearby town of Daraga, Albay, their presence in the seven barangays here is part of their “bayanihan” project that conducts community immersions to find out the needs of communities and help attend to issues raised by villagers.

The PA’s bayanihan team is composed not only of soldiers but also of representatives from different line agencies whose services are badly needed in barangays it visits, Visaya said.

The team includes people from the local government unit (LGU), Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Health, Department of Education and Department of Social Welfare and Development, among other agencies, that may be needed depending on the concerns of each barangay, he said.

“Sometimes, we would invite representatives from the Department of Agrarian Reform when issues and concerns that should be addressed in a particular barangay involve the agrarian reform program of the government,” according to Visaya.

If there are problems involving agrarian reform beneficiaries who are encountering difficulties in the payment of amortizations for their Certificates of Land Ownership Award, the bayanihan team would have people from the Land Bank of the Philippines in tow to make things easier for this agrarian sector, he said.

The bayanihan team also helps in the sanitation problems in barangays by way of helping households construct toilets and communities put up safe water systems for their daily source of potable water, he added.

“In community assemblies that the team initiates, barangay residents find it easy to ventilate their concerns and for the government agencies concerned to act on them,” Visaya said.

The bayanihan team reaches out up to far-flung barangays that are seldom reached by government workers tasked to deliver basic services to the people, he said.

The PA has been doing this for years now not only in this city but also in the entire Bicol and in most parts of the country in close coordination with LGUs and various government line agencies working together for the attainment of peace and development in rural communities, Visaya added.

Maj Gen Romeo Calizo, the PA’s 9th Infantry (Spear) Division commander based in Pili, Camarines Sur, which oversees the Internal Peace and Security Operations in Bicol, said all units under his command have been aggressively pursuing efforts to link themselves with both public and private agencies towards helping in the development of impoverished communities in the region.

Among the linkages opened is the convergence formed among the PA, civilian government agencies and communities in the implementation of projects under Pres. Aquino’s Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program.

PAMANA is a peace and development framework of the Aquino administration for the empowering of conflict-affected areas (CAAs) as it is a way towards attaining economic progress being focused on initiating reforms and development projects in line with the national government’s peace agenda and ending internal armed conflicts.

Bicol is included among these CCAs with Albay, Camarines Norte, Masbate and Sorsogon identified as among the four provinces that yielded indicative plans for the program.

Through the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, which is the main implementing arm of PAMANA, CAAs are being developed through livelihood, infrastructure and other peace-building initiatives to establish resilient communities, Calizo said.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=516577