Davao Region and the entire Mindanao are virtually free of CPP-NPA terrorists as most of the leaders and their combatants have either been neutralized or have returned to the folds of the law.
Lt. Gen. Filmore B. Escobal, the Philippine National Police Commander of Eastern Mindanao Area declared that the once NPA-infested provinces of Davao Oriental and Davao de Oro are insurgents-free. He also revealed that government infrastructure contractors and corporate and private firms with investments in rural areas within his jurisdiction have experienced for the first time the absence of armed communist extortionists.
Indigenous people communities have been freed from NPA harassment and attempts at recruitment from the tribesmen had stopped. General Escobal likewise reported that they have recovered high-powered firearms from NPAs who laid down their arms but also from surrenderers who later revealed their arms cache.
Escobal gave cognizance to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC which was organized in 2018 based on Executive Order 70 issued by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
NTF-ELCAC started the government’s “whole-of-nation” approach in tackling the ongoing CPP/NPA armed rebellion in the Philippines. Fed up with the double talk of the late CPP-NPA founding chair Jose Ma. Sison, President Duterte scrapped the peace talks and instead tackle the problem by adding NTF-ELCAC as a tool to end the armed rebellion that had become extortionists’ fronts.
The success of the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in dealing with the communist terrorists in Mindanao has started to bear fruits.
Mindanao Development Authority Secretary Mabel Acosta, in a forum hosted by the Philippine Information Agency, took note of the perceptible increase of investments in Mindanao and the dramatic development in the tourism industry. She said tourist sites in once rebel-controlled provinces have become beckons to foreign and domestic guests.
Acosta said despite negative perceptions Mindanao enjoys a stable atmosphere of peace and order. This was confirmed by the result of a MinDa-commissioned survey which showed that among the safest provinces in Mindanao are those that were once considered “areas of concern”. Among these are Zamboanga Sibugay, Lanao del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, Davao del Norte, Agusan del Sur, and Basilan.
The liberation of Mindanao from the evil clutches of CPP-NPA should be nurtured by the government. It is time that its potential be harnessed to the fullest.
Out of the typhoon belt, the region is the Philippines’ food basket. The biggest agricultural export of the country comes from its fertile land. Bananas, pineapples, and recent durians are from Mindanao. Just last week, Marina Tuna of Davao City made a trial shipment of tuna direct to Shenzhen, China. It will soon start exporting fresh seafood products caught in the rich fishing ground from the eastern seaboard of Mindanao and from fish cages in the Davao Gulf. With proper assistance from the government, the rice production in the region could easily eclipse that of Central Luzon.
Two things which the Marcos government can do:
First, lift the “State of Emergency” in Mindanao which was declared by then- President Duterte following the siege of Marawi City. The Maute ISIS had long been wiped out and the SOE has become superfluous. There is also the possibility that it might be used in justifying the crazy idea of putting up an EDCA in Cagayan de Oro and elsewhere in Mindanao.
Second, except for Inday Sara Duterte who, after all, was elected Vice President and is currently Secretary of Education, it behooves on Pres. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos to name at least three more Cabinet secretaries from Mindanao. My gosh, we made you President after all.