84% of LGUs denounce CTG as ‘persona non grata’
EIGHTY four percent (84%) of the 1,715 Local Government Units (LGUs) in the country have condemned the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) for their atrocities through resolutions that declared the Communist Terrorist Groups (CTG) as persona non grata’ in their respective turfs.
In the weekly press briefing of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflicts (NTF-ELCAC), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, the Task Force spokesperson for Barangay Development Program and LGU Concerns, said this means that almost all of the LGUs have formally expressed their condemnation of the CPP-NPA through duly approved resolutions by their Sangguniang Bayan or councils composed of elected officials and approved by their local chief executives such as provincial governors and mayors.
“This declaration of an unwelcome, unacceptable organization in their localities is an assurance and manifestation that we have allies in this war against communist terrorism on the ground, because they are the ones working with the people,” Malaya said.
He added that unlike in the past where addressing the CTG problem was “purely police and military focused”, the present strategy is an all sectoral or a “whole of country approach” to end the local communist insurgency.
Malaya said the remaining 279 LGUs are also in various stages of deliberations to denounce the terrorist groups in their respective provincial, city, and municipal councils.
This is the first ‘persona non grata’ declaration that the 1,436 LGUs have passed against CPP-NPA since the beginning of the 53-year old insurgency, according to Malaya.
He likened the problem to decades of having a “pandemic”, and as a whole of nation approach, the NTF-ELCAC will use “the truth as a vaccination” to once and for all end the CTG “virus”.
