Local officials, residents welcome the joint CSP teams in Ilocos

From the Philippine Information Agency (Aug 17, 2019): Local officials, residents welcome the joint CSP teams in Ilocos

SALCEDO, Ilocos Sur - - Local officials in this town have welcomed the joint army and police teams as the implementors of the community support program (CSP) in the different barangays here.

The CSP teams are composed of the operatives from the Philippine Army and the police regional mobile force from PNP Regional Office 1.

They were deployed in Barangays Lucbuban, Ubbog, and Sorioan, all in Salcedo, Ilocos Sur on August 13, 2019.

Salcedo town Mayor Leopoldo Geronilla Jr. said that the concern officials and residents received warmly the CSP teams in their communities.

“Our local officials and residents in the three villages assured their full support and cooperation to the soldiers and police while they are conducting CSP activities,” said Geronilla.

Geronilla cited that the army and the police troops are deployed in his town to implement their mandate to protect the people and the sovereignty of the state.

“All of us in the government have our mandates, one of my mandates is to provide efficient, effective and economical governance for the general welfare of the municipality and its inhabitants,” he said.

“In line with Executive Order (EO) 70, we should help each other to provide a safe environment for our people,” he added.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Castillo, the commander of the Army’s 81st Infantry Battalion, expressed his gratitude to the local leaders and residents for accepting and trusting the CSP teams to live with them in their communities.

Ideally, Castillo said the CSP team members will stay for three months in the community to render community services for peace, growth, and development.

The teams will conduct the needs and assessment survey to identify the primary and secondary issues of the residents that need to be addressed by the national government agencies and the local government unit.

The CSP team also promotes the “Bayanihan” spirit in the community by providing manpower assistance on cleanliness drive, farming chores, infrastructure project constructions, and medical and personality hygiene and other basic social service activities such as bloodletting and free haircutting.

“With the support of the local leaders and the populace, we greatly hope that we will accomplish more than what we have done in the previous CSP deployments in the town,” he said.

He noted that the CSP teams will facilitate the resolution of the issues that contribute to conflict in the communities.

Major General Lenard Agustin, the commander of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division, expressed his appreciation to the municipal and barangay officials of Salcedo for receiving the soldiers and policemen in their communities.

“When government officials and the army will work together to keep communities safe from communist terrorists, it is a way of demonstrating the spirit of the whole of nation approach as embodied in the EO 70,” said Agustin. (AMB/FGL, PIA 1)

https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1026075