DAVAO CITY (PIA)– The National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) has started to roll out the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) that serves as its enhanced roadmap that emphasizes unity, healing and reconciliation and social transformation.
NTF ELCAC Secretariat Executive Director, Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr presented this to Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Secretary Leo Tereso Magno, and to the members of the Joint Regional Task Force (JRTF) ELCAC in a meeting on December 27, 2024.
Torres explained that the NAP-UPD had gone through rigorous, and well thought of processes that took off after the April 4, 2024 Executive Meeting during which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. spelled his guidance for all members of the National Task Force ELCAC “to provide inputs and closely collaborate in coming up with a responsive and workable plan.”
He said the action plan involved a series of meetings, cluster and inter-cluster planning workshops, consultations and dialogues with various stakeholders among which were local and international civil society organizations, United Nations (UN) bodies and the Embassy of the United States.
Designed as an enhanced roadmap of the NTF ELCAC for 2025-2028, the NAP UPD was approved by President Marcos Jr., on November 8, 2024, Torress revealed.
Eventually it was launched on December 6, 2024 during the 6th Founding Anniversary of NTF ELCAC and was presented on the same occasion to the Special Assistant to the President, Secretary Antonio Ernesto F. Lagdameo Jr.
During the last JRTF ELCAC XI Full Council Meeting in 2024, the full presentation of which was done by Director Alexander S. Umpar of the NTF ELCAC Production Directorate.
Umpar said that the formulation NAP UPD was aimed at answering the need for the NTF ELCAC to recalibrate its plans and strategies as the operational environment has been changed with the “strategic victory” that the national government has achieved in addressing local communist conflict.
Moving forward after this victory of defeating the armed wing of the communist terrorist group (CTG), “calls for a shift to a more civilian-led and governance based approach”, Umpar said during his presentation.
Behind the government’s significant achievement on ELCAC, it has noted the “resilience” of the CPP-NPA-NDF, “compelling us to remain vigilant,” Umpar said.
Umpar revealed that the CPP-NPA-NDF “remains a threat to national security” as it continues to build international networks, generate resources abroad, and it still has armed remnants.
Meanwhile, Umpar said that NTF ELCAC has framed NAP-UPD as its enhanced roadmap anchored on the National Peace Framework that has three pillars, namely, Unity, Peace and Security, and Socio-economic Development.
The NTF ELCAC builds the NAP-UPD implementation on a mechanism founded on the “Whole of Nation Approach” that has been proven to work for the national and local governments to deliver and achieve “good governance.”
Umpar explained that the NTF-ELCAC will continue to work through the 12 ELCAC Clusters to strategically realize the overall goal of “good governance” through the whole of nation approach of delivering services.
The NTF ELCAC expected the national, regional, and local task forces of ELCAC , to carry out the enhanced roadmap dubbed as the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP UPD) (PIA XI/ JMDA)
