Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos. FILE PHOTO
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—The number of active communist guerilla fronts in the country has dropped to five this year from 89 six years ago, losing influence over 3,207 villages there, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said. Monday, Nov. 7
The guerilla fronts diminished as 611 rebels surrendered and restarted their lives anew on the government’s support through livelihood, education, housing, medical, and other social services worth P45.8 million, said Abalos during a barangay development summit held in Clark Freeport.
The information could not immediately be verified with the New People’s Army, which has waged a communist rebellion since 1969.
According to him, the “game changer” in the government’s fight against insurgency was former President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70.
The order, signed on Dec. 4, 2018, “institutionaliz[ed] the whole-of-nation approach to attaining inclusive and sustainable peace.”
It created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), which gathered the military, police, and development agencies. However, human rights advocates have linked the NTF-Elcac and its local counterparts to red-tagging and atrocities.
“The institutionalization of the whole-of-nation approach has been a game changer in addressing the ills of the society – poverty, social inequality, historical injustices, among others. By leading programs that prioritize the responsive delivery of basic services, social inclusivity, and the active participation of sectors to pursue the country’s peace agenda, we are finally addressing the roots of insurgency at its core,” Abalos told local officials.
The gains are being preserved, he said, through the Retooled Community Support Program that local government units (LGUs) and national agencies do together. The Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP) funds the infrastructure and social development packages of LGUS.
Abalos said a total of 1,019, or 43.9 percent of the 2,319 projects identified by 822 barangay beneficiaries of the SBDP in 2021, have been completed.
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