MALAYBALAY CITY (BukidnonNews.Net/06 October 2024)—The Department of Interior and Local Government-Bukidnon revealed that Malaybalay City is one of three local government units in the province that will pilot the implementation of the “whole of nation” approach to end local communist armed conflict.
The two others are Valencia City and Maramag town, said Mr. Jay Niel C. Añasco, DILG-Bukidnon program manager during the seminar for the Capacitating Urban Communities for Peace and Development (CUCPD) Program, Oct. 3.
The CUCPD is one of the strategies to implement Executive Order No. 70 or the “Whole of Nation Approach to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
Mayor Jay Warren R. Pabillaran, who spoke during the orientation, welcomed the program emphasizing the need to end local insurgency.
The CUCPD program utilizes a sectoral-based approach to identify the “real and most urgent needs” of the most vulnerable sectors specified as youth, women, labor, and urban poor.
Based on the sectoral goals intended for the CUCPD Program, local government units should achieve sectoral goals in the identified four vulnerable sectors to help it end conflict in the locality.
Youth Sectoral Goal
Based on the program’s goals as presented during the orientation seminar, at the minimum for the youth and students sector, LGUs must encourage and ensure the active participation of the youth in the conduct of activities that promote nation-building. It added that through the Sangguniang Kabataan, the youth must have meaningful representation in the local legislative bodies that craft various measures and engage in advocacy efforts for the youth. The LGU should also support the role of the Local Council for the Protection of Children (LCPC) and Local School Board for the promotion and protection of the rights of children and the welfare of students.
Labor Sector Goal
Local Government units must facilitate the resolution of labor-related issues and concerns through the existing industrial dispute settlement mechanisms, which is pivotal to maintaining industrial peace. LGUs, according to the guidelines, are expected to strengthen their relationships with the Department of Labor and Employment to ensure compliance with labor laws and regulations among all business establishments.
”Likewise, local public employment service offices may be tapped to implement strategies aimed at boasting the availability of local employment opportunities by working with local employers.
Urban Poor Sectoral Goal
Local government units are expected to address and improve access to government services for urban poor communities through regular conduct of government service caravans, job fairs, financial literacy, and livelihood training programs, among others. The Local Development Councils, Local Social Welfare and Development Offices, and Urban Poor Affairs Offices shall take the lead in promoting citizen participation in local governance by organizing community dialogues, consultations, and other similar activities.
Women Sectoral Goals
The guidelines provided that local government units shall fully mainstream gender and development in local legislation, comprehensive development planning, land use planning and policy-making to ensure that the fundamental rights and welfare of women are protected. It provided that LGUs shall ensure the participation of women in all appropriate Local Special Bodies and the full functionality of the Gender and Development Focal Point System in order to come up with a Gender and Development Plan and Budget that is responsive to local gender issues and concerns.
Through the CUCPD, the government believes that by empowering local government units (LGUs), appropriate peacebuilding and development programs may be implemented to resolve the underlying issues.
The City Government of Malaybalay, through a Memorandum issued on September 26, 2024 by Mayor Pabillaran, invited 45 participants, mostly from the city government department heads, police and military officials, basic and higher education officials, and from other government agencies and non-government organizations to the orientation.
The participants were grouped among the four sectors during the workshop on identification of issues and concerns and identification and matching of interventions. The groups then took turns presenting their output.
Ms. Amalia A. Propia, Malaybalay City Local Government Operations Officer (DILG) said the next steps will be the validation of the results of the workshop.
Propia clarified that the DILG serves as secretariat of the National Task Force to End the Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). Based on the guidelines of the CUCPD, funding for interventions created under the program will be coming from the local government units, with support funds from national government agencies, including the DILG.
In December 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order 70 (EO 70) synchronizing the government’s instrumentalities of power with the capabilities of private sector stakeholders to end the communist armed conflict. The task force supports the Whole-of-Nation Approach in ending the communist armed conflict and obtaining sustainable and inclusive peace throughout the Philippines.
Based on its website, the task force recognizes that good governance is the solution to the conflict. The EO 70 involved all government agencies—from the national to the barangay level, with delineated roles and responsibilities in the Whole-of-Nation approach.
According to the DILG-Bukidnon presentations, CUCPD seeks to promote convergence and collaboration, upscaling governance, capacitate LGUs, resolve prevailing and emerging sectoral issues, and sustain peace and development.
DILG-Bukidnon’s Mr. Añasco said the program has been anchored on the eight pillars of positive peace, namely: well-functioning government, equitable distribution of resources, free-flow of information, good relations with neighbors, high level of human capital, acceptance of the rights of others, low levels of corruption, and sound business environment. (BukidnonNews.Net with reports)
