I’M referring to the decision of the Cordillera Regional Peace and Order Council and Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee to launch their’ Dumanun Makituntung’ program to help the government put an end to the more than five-decades old communist insurgency by convincing more New People’s Army members and their supporters to yield and support the nation’s peace-building efforts.

‘Dumanun Makituntung’ are Ilocano words for ‘visit and discuss’ which the Cordillera RPOC and RLECC envisions to be implemented across the region as part of their joint effort to help address the communist problem thru peace dialogues with identified members of Communist Front Organizations or CFOs.

The new strategy appears to have directly hit the CPP/NDF/NPA that their supporters have given it a negative meaning by associating it with the Oplan: Tokhang, the Visayan words to Toktok (knock) and Hangyo (plea) launched by the PNP in 2016 and claiming it may result to violence.

Actually, the PNP Oplan: Tokhang was a good idea when it was launched in the middle part of 2016 but was given a negative connotation when it was associated with drug-related killings, with government critics from the opposition, the Left and local and foreign human rights groups pouncing on cases of suspected personalities killed in the wake of the program.

It even triggered the word ‘Natokhang,’ meaning, killed in a police anti-narcotics operation even though the slain armed suspects died after engaging undercover officers in firefights during buy-bust operations. This time, government critics, the CPP/NDF/NPA and their propagandists are making absurd claims ‘Dumanun Makituntung’ may be a similar deadly tactic by the government.

The Cordillera RPOC headed by Baguio City Mayor Benjie Magalong, I was told has approved the adoption of the Cordillera RLECC’s resolution for multi – sectoral groups to conduct peace dialogues with members of CFOs in the region in line with the whole-of-nation approach to end local armed conflict.

In its Resolution, the Cordillera RLECC agreed that members of law enforcement agencies together with representatives of local government units, religious sector and non government organizations are enjoined to conduct “Dumanun Makitungtung” strategy to known members of CFOs in the region.

The program calls for multi-sectoral teams to conduct house visitation of known members or supporters of the CPP/NDF/NPA in the region and plea for them, with utmost courtesy and respect for human rights, to stop dealing with or supporting the rebel movement. Peace and Order Councils of different provinces and highly-urbanized cities in the region have been enjoined to fully support the program.

The same RPOC and RLECC resolutions have been forwarded to the Regional Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict and the National Peace and Order Council through the Department of the Interior and Local Government for possible replication across the country.

PNP chief, General Gilor Eleazar thanked the Cordillera RPOC and RLECC chaired by Cordillera Police Regional Office director, Brigadier Gen. Ronald Lee for coming up with the noble strategy which is expected to pave the way for the surrender of more NPA personalities in the region.

Last June and July alone, the Cordillera police said that 63 NPA members have surrendered to police and military authorities in the region and also turned over 37 firearms and 13 explosives which could be used to kill or maim more government and civilian targets. The number may double or triple as a result of the ‘Dumanun Makituntung’ program.

Gen. Eleazar said that the ‘Dumanun Makituntung’ will form part of the ‘whole-of-nation-approach’ to address the armed communist insurgency in the region which has caused the deaths of hundreds of people including soldiers, policemen, NPA rebels and innocent civilians since the 70s.

“The Philippine National Police appreciates the effort of the Cordillera Regional Peace and Order Council in coming up with new ideas to finally put an end to the more than five decades-long communist insurgency problem in the country,’ he said. The top cop also said they will continue to provide assistance “in a way that will strike a balance between our collective goal of defeating the CPP-NPA-NDF and our commitment to respect and uphold the basic human rights of every Filipino.”

Gen. Eleazar instructed Brig. Gen. Lee to fully coordinate with the Cordillera RPOC in carrying out the program saying the PNP leadership believes they have to present better ideas that focus on winning back the trust and confidence of those who have fallen prey to the CPP/NDF/NPA’s failed ideology.’ He added that they have been doing so through their aggressive support on information dissemination, community mobilization through police-community relations, and barangay development program.

I learned that as part of the program, teams from the local police will be joined by members of different civic and religious groups as well as barangay leaders in visiting homes in the region to talk people into helping the government put an end to the communist problem basically by not supporting the rebels.

The visiting teams are under orders to observe utmost courtesy and respect for human rights each time they visit the house of a personality known for having links with the underground movement or are actually members of their legal fronts.

As planned, those to be visited are personalities known for their association with the underground movement. However, those visits should be fist coordinated with local barangay officials.

Participants to the project are also required to observe utmost courtesy and fully respect human rights each time they visit a CFO member. In the event a known CFO personality express his willingness to withdraw support to the CPP/NDF/NPA movement, his relatives will be asked to bring him to local police station for documentation and proper disposition.

Members of the RLECC led by Brig. Gen. Lee and officials from the local National Bureau of Investigation, Departments of Health, Labor and Employment, Justice, Interior and Local Government, Public Works and Highways, Education, Transportation and Agriculture as well as the Cordillera National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Commission on Human Rights, National Police Commission and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology signed the resolution which was forwarded to the Cordillera RPOC for concurrence and adoption by all governors and mayors in the region.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Alfred P. Dalizon