BANGUED, Abra – Vice governor and unified Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) chairman Ronald Balao-as offered the services of the officers and members of the organization to help in the government’s peace, unification and development programs in the countryside to prove their commitment that they are really partners in countryside development.
Balao-as revealed CPLA officers and members are willing to be under the operational control of concerned government agencies for the preservation and protection of the region’s resources among others.
“We want to show our commitment to the government that we are their partners in peace, unification and development. We want to help concerned government agencies realize the benefits of their programs in the countryside by providing them the needed assistance,’ Balao-as stressed.
The Abra provincial official claimed CPLA officers and members were able to prove their worth in the past by being successful in curbing the proliferation of illegal logging in the remote areas of the region, the existence of alleged illegal mining and other illegal activities of people that tend to affect the peace and order situation in the various places around the region.
According to him, he was able to talk to officials of the Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-CAR) for the possible deputation of CPLA members as forest guards to assist in the implementation of the government’s anti-illegal campaign and that he is just awaiting the action of the concerned officials on their offer.
He claimed there are other remote areas in the region where officials and employees of government agencies cannot actually penetrate, thus, the CPLA men are the ones who are able to go to the said communities and instil law and order to help in instilling peace and development in the countryside.
Balao-as assured the public that the CPLA men now are totally different from the CPLA that they know that is why there is a need for the public to give them a chance to redeem themselves from whatever bad perception that were impressed upon them in the past as a result of the numerous questionable activities of their previous leaders.
The vice governor underscored that the public should be able to distinguish the unified CPLA now from the previous CPLA because he and the other incumbent leaders of the organization have impressed upon their members their adherence to the highest standards of discipline and their non-involvement in illegal activities that would again ruin their efforts to erase the bad perception of the public on the overall status of the organization.
Balao-as emphasized that what the CPLA officers and members are interested is for the realization of the region’s renewed quest for autonomy and for them to be instrumental in ensuring the successful implementation of the various programs and projects of concerned government agencies and the local government for the overall upliftment of the living condition of people in the countryside and for the preservation and protection of the region’s rich natural resources from irresponsible developers among others.
By HENT
