LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The leadership of the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte-National Executive Coordinating Committee (MRRD-NECC) disowned rogue members from the Cordillera and other parts of the country who had been using the organization to advance their own personal and political interests that tainted a bad image of the organization among local leaders and the private sector regionwide.
Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, who also serves as the MRRD-NECC national president, informed provincial officials led by Gov. Crescencio C. Pacalso that the organization does not tolerate questionable and doubtful activities of their members in the regions and provinces because what they uphold and support are the major programs of the President against graft and corruption and for the promotion of good governance.
Secretary Castriciones claimed that while there are legitimate MRRD-NECC members, not all of them are considered to be lawful members and not all their activities, especially the questionable ones, are sanctioned by the organization.
Pacalso brought to the attention of the DAR official the recruitment done by purported MRRD-NECC officers in the region where they even went to the extent of recruiting rogue and expelled members of the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) as members casting doubt among the local officials of the province on the real intention of the establishment of the organization that even uses the name of the President.
“We do not want individuals with questionable personalities to be part of the organization because it is the name of the President that is at stake, especially when they start using the organization to cloth their illegal and doubtful activities like recruiting residents to support federalism with a promise that they will be enlisted with the police or military if the Cordillera will become a federal state or an autonomous region,” Pacalso stressed.
Secretary Castriciones also assured provincial officials that the MRRD-NECC supports the region’s renewed quest for autonomy towards federalism which again negates the previous actions done by purported MRRD-NECC leaders who had been going around the region aggressively campaigning for federalism which is contrary to the policy direction of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera, that is, autonomy towards federalism.
Pacalso challenged the MRRD-NECC leadership to make things clear on the matter of having rogue and expelled CPLA members as organic members of the group because people have lost their trust and confidence in them, thus, this will greatly affect the image of the group from the point of view of ordinary people as it is made to appear that the president is tolerating the questionable and doubtful actions of his people on the ground.
Last July 15, 2018, the MRRD-NECC and the expelled members of the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) were in Mount Data, Bauko, Mountain Province celebrating the 31st founding anniversary of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) while the same celebration was done in Lagawe, Ifugao spearheaded by the RDC-CAR and the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC-CAR) which only shows their alleged questionable moves to advance their own personal and political interests despite the direction crafted by the RDC-CAR. By HENT
