BONTOC, Mountain Province – The Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) of Mountain Province (MP) held a coordination meeting with representatives from the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU) and the members of the Balik Loob Organization of MP for the overview presentation and orientation of the OPAPRU’s Local Peace Engagement (LPE) and its transformation program in the province.
The meeting was held at the Drop-by Restaurant in Sac-angan, Bontoc, on November 19, 2024.
The OPAPRU team was led by OPAPRU Consultants Bismarck D. Soliba, Cameron P. Odsey, and Tomas A. Killip with planning development officers Jessica C. Banganan and Athalia G. Tulay.
The LPE, as introduced by Banganan, is a nationally orchestrated, centrally directed, and locally supervised and implemented approach being used for peace negotiations with the communist terrorist groups. Through its Transformation Program, she said that the LPE seeks to transform the lives of Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Fronts (CPP-NPA-NDFs) and former rebels, their families, and communities located in conflict-affected and conflict-vulnerable areas.
The Transformation Program (TP) is comprised of four components, which are security, confidence-building measures, healing and reconciliation, and socio-economy. Moreover, the TP undergoes three phases of transformation, which are surfacing of former combatants, mainstreaming with the FR’s families and communities, and institutionalization/organization of FRs into legal entities towards sustainable transformation.
At the moment, there are 44 TP plans that were crafted across the Philippines which contributed to the conduct of various local peace settlements, weakening of the CPP-NPA-NDF manpower, and significant reduction of guerilla fronts, CPP-NPA-NDF firearms, and NPA-initiated violent incidents.
To further strengthen its implementation in the province, a training workshop on the formulation of TP plans for MP is set to be held at a later date. By Hail, MP
