(Photo courtesy of NEDA)
BAGUIO CITY (PIA) — President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has designated Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan as the new Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) of the Joint Regional Task Force – Cordillera Administrative Region (JRTF-CAR).
The CORDS will oversee the peace and development efforts in the region.
Aside from ensuring speedy, efficient and orderly resolution of problems in government operations, the CORDS will assist the President in delivering basic services and livelihood. They will facilitate the whole-of-nation approach and whole-of-government participation and shall champion good governance in order to attain inclusive and sustainable peace.
The President recently made the commitment that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) campaign will be sustained especially in its peace and development efforts.
Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr., executive director of the NTF-ELCAC, said part of the strengthening of the NTF-ELCAC is the designation of CORDS.
“The merging of the Regional Peace and Order Council and the Regional Development Council on matters pertaining to the resolution of the root cause of insurgency are being led by the CORDS in every region in our country,” Torres said.
Balisacan is an economist with extensive expertise in development policy, governance and administration, and has years of professional work as a government official, non-governmental organization executive, economic adviser, researcher, professor, and consultant for numerous development agencies and intergovernmental organizations. (JDP/DEG-PIA CAR)
