Region 1 declared 1st area with ‘stable internal peace, security’

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 24, 2022): Region 1 declared 1st area with ‘stable internal peace, security’ (By Hilda Austria)

STABLE INTERNAL PEACE AND SECURITY. National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. during the Kapihan forum hosted by the Philippine Information Agency Ilocos regional office on Feb. 24, 2022. Esperon said Ilocos Region is now formally declared in stable internal peace and security. (Screenshot from PIA Ilocos Region's live stream on Facebook)

The Regional Development Council, Regional Peace and Order Council, and the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict signed a resolution on Thursday declaring Ilocos Region as an area with stable internal peace and security following more than a year of zero violent incidents involving the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

In a virtual press conference hosted by the Philippine Information Agency Ilocos regional office, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said there are no more armed groups in the region after the dismantling of the Komiteng Larangan Guerilla (KLG) South Ilocos Sur in September 2020.

“What we have now are groups that would attempt to reestablish,” he said.

Esperon said the main task of maintaining law and order is now turned over from the Army to the Ilocos Police Regional Office together with other agencies.

“The military now becomes a support agency if there is a need for focus military operations as they pursue peace and security development,” he said.

Esperon said Ilocos Region is the first to be declared with the status while he hopes the other regions will follow, such as the Cordillera Administrative Region where the armed groups have also weakened already.

“This doesn’t mean we can now relax but all the more that we need to bring development (into the communities),” he said.

National Security Council Undersecretary Vicente Agdamag said 33 barangays in the region will be given projects under the Barangay Development Program (BDP).

Twenty-seven of these barangays are from Ilocos Sur, and two barangays each from Ilocos Norte, La Union, and Pangasinan.

The villages under BDP were cleared of communist terrorists’ threat by the CPP-NPA through the long validation by the police, army, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

“There are a total of 54 projects. Of the total number, three are in Ilocos Norte, 46 in Ilocos Sur, two in La Union, and three in Pangasinan,” he said.

The recipient barangays will each receive PHP20 million worth of socioeconomic development projects towards the provision of farm-to-market roads, health centers, electrification, water and sanitation facilities, schools, and livelihood projects.

In 2021, two barangays in the region benefited from the BDP.

Brig. Gen. Krishnamurti Mortela, commander of the 702nd Infantry Brigade, said the journey towards stable internal peace and security has gone through stages from insurgency (active and less active provinces), normalization (conflict-manageable and suppressed insurgency), and to the stability of peace and security.

“All provinces of the region are now cleared and unaffected,” he said.

Mortela said the highlights of the campaign against the terrorist group in the region were the dismantling of the guerilla front, clearing of focus areas, and dismantling of KLG AMPIS last year.

He said 948 members of the terrorist group in the region surrendered from 2018 to 2021.

Of the total number, 28 were regular NPA members, 52 “Milisyang Bayan” members from barangays, and 867 were underground movement group members.

“We now target to meet head-on possible NPA resurgence, transform former NPA bases into communities of peace, transform former NPA fighters and radicalized masses into productive citizens, and transform Ilocos Region into a progressive growth area,” Mortela said.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

The National Democratic Front has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973.


https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1168495