ILOILO City – All city, provincial and municipal police units in Western Visayas held simultaneous support rallies and peace covenant signing to end the local communist armed conflict on Nov. 6.
The signing of covenants was participated by various sectors – religious, academe, business, youth, etc.
It was a show of support to the Philippine National Police’s and Armed Forces of the Philippines’ campaign against the insurgency, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, public information officer of the Police Regional Office 6.
The endeavor was also part of the “whole of nation approach” to end the threat and local terrorist in Western Visayas, said Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, regional police director.
“Let us all work together as one Western Visayas to fight the more than five decades of insurgency problem in our region,” added Pamuspusan.
Just this October, six agencies under the Peace, Law Enforcement and Development Support Cluster in Western Visayas signed an “Implementation Plan” (ImPlan) in Camp Delgado, the headquarters of the PRO-6, to address the insurgency problem.
These included the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine News Agency, and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Pamuspusan, who co-chairs the cluster, said the ImPlan synchronizes the efforts of peace, law enforcement, and development agencies to address the problem on insurgency.
There are various clusters in the ImPlan, including the local government empowerment cluster, legal cooperation cluster, basic services cluster, and livelihood and poverty alleviation cluster, among others./PN
