BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera Regional Development Council (RDC-CAR) requested the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera to immediately convene the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) where numerous peace and order and development issues could be discussed and deliberated in order to sustain the modest peace and order situation regionwide.
Abra Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin, who chaired the 1st quarter meeting of the RDC-CAR here Thursday, said the absence of a permanent RPOC chairman appointed by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III should not be used as an excuse for concerned government and law enforcement agencies not to convene the regional council because there are numerous issues that need to be discussed and addressed by the council.
Bersamin, who is the duly appointed RDC-CAR chairperson, raised the matter during the February meeting of the RDC-CAR and a request was formally submitted to Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II but it seems no concrete action was taken by his office.
“We have to deliberate on peace and order issues confronting our region, especially that election is fast approaching. We want peace to continue reigning in our region, especially in Abra,” Bersamin stressed.
It was learned that the DILG-CAR is the Secretariat of the RPOC while the Regional Director of PRO-CAR is considered the permanent vice chairman of the council.
Bersamin raised the fact that the DILG-CAR nor the PRO-CAR initiated the conduct of the quarterly meetings of the council so that officials of concerned government agencies, law enforcement units and local government will be updated on the true picture of peace and order in the region and even in the different provinces comprising the Cordillera Administrative Region.
The Abra governor disclosed calling a meeting of the RPOC in the middle or later part of the year would just be a second thought among concerned line agencies and it would also result to a low morale among local officials who are really advocating for peace in their ares of jurisdiction and the region as a whole.
The last chairperson of the RPOC was former Ifugao Gov. Eugene Balitang who served from 2010-2013 but President Aquino never appointed his replacement right after the May 2013 mid-term elections.
Chairpersons of RDCs, the regional policy-making bodies of the different regions, and RPOCs, the regional peace and order policy-among bodies of the regions, serve a 3-year term upon appointment of the President and shoe terms expire at the end of their terms as elected officials or private sector representatives, respectively.
Bersamin cited Abra achieved significant gains in their peace and order efforts during the May 2013 elections that is why he wants the gains of peace and order in his province to be sustained through constant updates by the RPOC and not for the RPOC to simply sit on their laurels and await what would be the latest developments in the coming elections.
He called on responsible officials to be circumspect in deciding what would be the best approach for peace and order in the region through the RPOC so that local officials will also be updated on what interventions are being done as early as now to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the May 2016 synchronized elections. By Dexter A. See
