GENERAL SANTOS CITY (PIA) -- The Local Peace Engagement Office (LPEO) of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) spearheaded a three-day planning workshop on the Transformation Program (TP), attended by participants from the provincial local government units including former rebels (FR) in Soccsksargen.
On Wednesday, the TP workshop, which was part of the initiative being done under the Local Peace Engagement (LPE) Cluster, one of the 12 line of efforts of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), began at the East Asia Royale Hotel in General Santos City.
According to OPAPRU director of the Field Implementation Support Unit for Mindanao, Atty. Elisa Evangelista-Lapiña, NTF-ELCAC’s new direction under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is now aligned with "sustaining the gains.”
She explained that President Marcos has directed them to sustain the "Whole of Nation Approach" since the government "can’t afford to go back to square one," taking into account the huge successes that have already been gained since the implementation of NTF-ELCAC in 2018.
The NTF-ELCAC was created based on Executive Order No. 70, signed by then President Rodrigo Duterte, to focus on the development of communities that were previously exploited or controlled by the communist insurgents using a whole-of-nation approach to attain and sustain peace and development in the area.
It is also the government’s response to deter the communist terrorist group (CTG) from going back to the communities by raising awareness of their ongoing rebellious activities in the country.
The workshop, said Evangelista-Lapiña, intends to address the causes of the decades-long communist insurgency in the country, with the ultimate aim of providing FRs with the peace, security, and socioeconomic interventions required for their successful reintegration into mainstream society.
She said the TP workshop, further aims to assess and evaluate the implementation of programs under NTF-ELCAC, what did work and didn't, and those that need to be further improved.
The OPAPRU director emphasized that ELCAC’s implementation must already present some tangible transformations in the lives of those beneficiaries, which she believed could be discussed as they surface in the workshop.
She said the TP intends to make ELCAC more responsive to the needs of FRs, which can bring about a meaningful and valuable transformation not just for the beneficiaries but also for the communities as a whole.
The LPE Cluster, which is led by the OPAPRU, facilitates dialogues at the community level and coordinates with local leaders for the surrender of the CTG or its members who have expressed a desire to return to the folds of the law.
