TACLOBAN CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday (March 18) expressed optimism that the communist insurgency will soon come to an end or at least before he steps down from office in 2022.
“I know this problem could not be solved overnight,” Duterte said.
“That is why I am asking for the cooperation and solidarity of all sectors in ending this conflict once and for all,” he said.
“With your support and patriotism, I am confident that we will triumph over the challenges ahead of us,” the President said.
“Be assured that the entire force of the Filipino people, though the hands of the government, is behind you to secure a genuine and lasting peace for our motherland,” the President added.
Duterte was in Tacloban for a meeting of the regional task force to end local communist armed conflict (Elcac) held at the city’s Summit Hotel.
All governors in the region, except Samar Gov. Reynolds Michael Tan, were present during the event which was marked by a power failure just minutes before the President arrived at the venue.
In his presentation on the insurgency in Eastern Visayas, Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Joselito Bautista, who once served as the deputy commanding officer of the 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan City, Samar province, said that since the Duterte administration implemented its “whole-of-nation approach” to the insurgency, only four out of the region’s 11 communist fronts are still standing.
At least 1,000 regular members or New People’s Army also surrendered as 200 villages in the region were declared insurgency-free, Bautista said.
Officials in all six provinces, seven cities, and 137 towns in the region had declared communist rebels as persona non grata, or unwelcome.
Eastern Visayas is one of the country’s poorest region with officials partly blaming the insurgency for massive poverty.
During his more than one-hour speech, Duterte also teased Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III about their political future.
He addressed Go, his long-time confidant, as “president” and called Bello “senator.”
Go, in a separate interview, said his visits around the country should not be taken to mean he was running for President in 2022.
“After I was proclaimed senator, I visited our fellow Filipinos whose homes were destroyed by fire, those affected by floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruption. I could not sit in my office and do nothing,” he said in Filipino.
TSB