by Miriam G. Desacada
Fresh from his recent presidential appointment (March 28) as executive director of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), retired Army general Ernesto Torres Jr. visited Eastern Visayas and met with with military and police regional officials, to discuss tools and strategies to finally end insurgency in this part of the country,
Torres had a consultative meeting with the members of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC), led by Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, the newly appointed chairperson, who in turn suggested the continuation of the localized peace talks, in addition to the ELCAC program implementation.
Torres, who bears the rank of an undersecretary, agreed that it is preferable “to have a localized peace agreement, wherein communities are involved in the peace process along with the local chief executives.”
Romualdez said he is optimistic that, in tandem with the ELCAC program, the continuing localized peace talks in the barangays would lead to the declaration of Eastern Visayas as an insurgency-free region.
Government records showed that, for the past three months of this year alone, at least 85 NPA members voluntarily surrendered, 32 of them to the regional police command, and 53 to the military.
Thousands of NPA sympathizers have earlier surrendered, some joined the government, and hundreds more rebels also returned to the fold of the law, besides the neutralization and arrest of their leaders following armed encounters in the region the past years.
Regional Army officials, in partnership with the ELCAC’s regional task force, had revealed to the media that there are now two remaining NPA guerilla fronts only in Northern Samar, where in the past they were talking about hundreds of these.
The Catbalogan City-based 8th Infantry Division had identified 20 barangays still under NPA threat, 90 percent of these are in Northern Samar.
803rd Infantry Brigade commander, Colonel Efren Moras, added in a separate interview that the military forces had identified only at least 68 armed rebels still operating in the upland barangays of this province.
Based on these figures, Major General Camilo Ligayo—8ID commander—reassured the public that the military is now closing in to the imminent declaration of Eastern Visayas as an insurgency-free region, following the others around the country.
This is on top of the momentum achieved in the peace process and ELCAC strategies, alongside with the deployment to the region of four Army battalions since last year to augment the existing military forces regionwide, said Ligayo.
“We are confident that these two remaining guerilla fronts in Eastern Visayas will be dismantled with the all-out support of the national government. Using the whole-of nation approach thru the ELCAC, there is no reason for us not to clear Eastern Visayas from the armed conflict,” Ligayo said.
Torres, who had just retired this year, was formerly the chief of the Northern Luzon Command, the Army’s 10th ID, and the AFP’s Civil Relations Service.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte signed executive order 70 creating the ELCAC, which was designed to provide an efficient mechanism and structure in attaining sustainable peace, and ending the decades-old insurgency. —Miriam G. Desacada