THIS MORE than 50 years old communist insurgency nonsense is on its final death throes.
Of the 89 active guerilla fronts, the AFP/NTF-ELCAC successfully dismantled 78, reducing their strength to just 11 weakened fronts, and by this time these 11 severely weekend fronts would be nil.
What’s left are the pseudo-communists in Congress and the useful idiots in the University of the Philippines making a lot of noise to give the impression that the insurgency is still active. Actually, they are largely ignored by the people because they’re obsolete and irrelevant.
As I said before, what happened was not the withering away of the state as envisioned by Karl Marx but the withering away of communism. With peace and progress now in the countryside, the next mission of the government is winning the hearts and minds of those who were affected and part of this insurgency.
Comes the ECLIP or Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program, a government initiative that aims to provide a comprehensive package of benefits and assistance to former rebels who have decided to return to the fold of the law.
The ECLIP is one facet of many strategies of the government to obtain just and lasting peace, social transformation, and inclusive development. By catering to individuals who surfaced and wanted to return to the folds of the law and become productive citizens of the society, ECLIP is an encouraging scheme that promotes reconciliation in a non-violent manner.
This process aims to provide DILG-administered package of assistance such as the following:
1. Immediate Assistance
2. Livelihood Assistance
3. Reintegration Assistance; and
4. Firearms Remuneration
The financial package covers immediate assistance, provision of reintegration process, a starting capital for livelihood, as well as remunerating surrendered firearms.
Meanwhile, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Western Visayas urged remaining rebels to return to the fold of the law and avail themselves of benefits provided under the E-CLIP.
“I am appealing for you (rebels) to return to the government, which is ready to help you go back to your normal or even better lives,” DILG Regional Director Juan Jovian Ingeniero said during an interview, adding that the government is ready to guide and help them.
He said under the whole-of-government approach, more benefits await those who return to the fold, especially under the E-CLIP.
Before, he said, the government only extended cash aid and remuneration for the firearms that the rebels surrendered. Under the E-CLIP, in addition to cash aid and remuneration for firearms, government agencies identify their needs that should be addressed.
These include housing under the National Housing Authority when available, employment through the Department of Labor and Employment, skills and livelihood training from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and financial aid from the local government, among others.
“All concerned agencies will have a project under the E-CLIP because that is what we have agreed in the Peace and Order Council,” Ingeniero said. (PNA 8/1/2024)
Moving on, over P1.07 billion have been made available for 238 projects under the Local Government Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP) for barangays cleared from insurgency in Western Visayas from 2022 until 2024.
SBDP is a flagship program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
“These projects are focused on poverty alleviation and development and geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs). These are formerly communist conflict-affected areas and have been cleared,” said engineer Juan Jovian Ingeniero, regional director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Western Visayas.
He said among the projects are farm-to-market roads, the installation of rural electrification, sanitary water systems, health stations, and school buildings, among others. (PNA 7/30/2024)
Indeed, the hearts and minds of former rebels and their supporters in the countryside have been won.
At the end of the day, this communist insurgency nonsense is all but quaint a memory of the pseudo-communist septuagenarians still dreaming of the First Quarter Storm./PN
