THE two bishops in Bohol along with the Special Action Committee of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) serves as the advisory group of the Provincial Task Force (PTF) to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC), a recent Executive Order for the governor stated.
The Bishop of the Diocese of Tagbilaran and the Bishop of the Diocese of Talibon would serve as among the advisory group of the Task Force ELCAC, Executive Order No. 28, series of 2023 issued by Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado said.
The governor sits as the PTF Chair and the Vice Governor as the Vice chair with all the national government agencies in Bohol represented by their heads, non-government organizations and sectoral representatives sit as members.
It also effectively reorganized and reconstituted the PTF ELCAC, in another bid to carve a niche of peace which his father as a governor then successfully did a decade ago.
Moving in line with former President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive order No 70, series of 2018, which created the National Task Force ELCAC which shall provide the efficient mechanism and structure for the implementation of the Whole of Nation Approach to aid in the realization of the Filipino’s collective aspiration of inclusive and sustainable peace, Gov Aumentado intends to unify and simplify the Task force for this goal by harmonizing the local and national task force’s programs for peace and development.
Over-all, the reorganization is a reiteration of war renunciation as a state policy, while asserting that the maintenance of peace and order, the protection of life, liberty and property and the promotion of the general welfare for the enjoyment of communities in democracy, is the state’s mandate.
With the EO, the governor affirms the whole of nation approach, which essentially was a formula that then Governor Erico Aumentado popularized in his convergence strategy in poverty alleviation as the most effective way of uprooting the dissent sowed by communist terrorists in poor communities of the province.
As such, the reorganized and reconstituted PTF Elcac earns a support team in Intelligence with the army’s Task Group Bohol and the Provincial Police Office; public information support with the Philippine Information Agency and the Provincial information and Media Office; Legal Support with the Provincial Legal Office and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in Bohol, Finance and Logistics Support with the Provincial Budget Office, Provincial Accountant’s Office and the Provincial treasurer’s Office.
The PTF ELCAC also has a Sub Task Force on Socio-Economic Development (TF SED) tasked to implement its various developmental initiatives. These are composed of Situational awareness and Knowledge Management Cluster with the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Task Group Bohol and the BPPO, the Local Government Empowerment Cluster with the Department of Interior and Local Government as lead.
Under the sub TF SED is the Legal Cooperation Cluster led by the Provincial Legal Office, Strategic Communication Cluster with PIMO, Sectoral Unification and Capacity Building and Empowerment Cluster with the Department of labor and Employment, Basic Services Cluster with the DILG Bohol and the Poverty Reduction and Livelihood and Employment Cluster with the Provincial Cooperative Development Office.
The Sub TF SED also has Infrastructure, Resource management and Employment Cluster with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Public Works and Highways, Provincial Engineers Office, General Services Office, Environment and Management Office.
Then there is the Localized Peace Engagement Cluster under the DILG which has the Local Peace Engagement Team and the Local peace Panel, the Peace and Law Enforcement and Development Support Cluster under Task Group Bohol and the Bohol Police; the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program and Amnesty program under the DILG and the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the International Engagement Cluster under the Governor’s Office, Bohol Employment and Placement Office and the Center for Culture and Arts Development.
In the EO, the Provincial Cooperative Development Office is the main vehicle for cascading the component programs, projects and activities of the PTF to the rural communities or puroks via its community organizing and development mechanism in mobilizing communities to ELCAC.
The governor signed the Executive Order last May 24, 2023. (PIA-7/Bohol)
