DAET, Camarines Norte (PIA) – The office of the presidential peace adviser in the province recently gathered stakeholders for the formulation of the local government’s peace engagement program.
In gathering local stakeholders, Camarines Norte’s Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace and Reconciliation and Unity-Region 5 (OPAPRU-5) aimed to lay down the details of the Local Peace Engagement-Transformation Program (LPE-TP) for the province.
Representatives from national government agencies, local government units, religious organizations, and private institutions took part in the formulation of LPE-TP.
In the next three years, local stakeholders were expected to implement the LPE-TP strategies for the security and confidence-building measures, healing and reconciliation, and socio-economic components of the peace engagement program in Camarines Norte.
Vital components of the program include prioritization of the processing of documents of former rebels (FRs), resettlement areas for returnees, value formation and counseling, the establishment of a peace center, legal assistance, the availment of a witness protection program, providing livelihoods, potable water sources, land titling, the completion of road projects, and an information-education drive.
During the refinement phase of the transformation program, OPAPRU Southern Luzon Area Manager Paul Escober said that each of the local peace projects should include detailed activities of implementing agencies and partner organizations.
The transformation program aims to sustain the success of Executive Order 70, which is not only the Enhanced-Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLP), but the whole-of-nation (or inter-government agencies and private stakeholders) approach to ending communist insurgency, Escober said.
He pointed out that the strength of the New People’s Army (NPA) is weakening in terms of manpower, logistics, and firearms. Also, the number of communist insurgents nationwide is down to less than 2,000.
Moreover, he said that NPA presence is expected to decline further with the full implementation of the amnesty program, boosting the E-CLIP, as well as the transformation programs.
He said that the government is pushing to end insurgency or internal conflict because the country is facing an external battle in the West Philippine Sea. (Rosalita Manlangit/PIA5-Camarines Norte)
