90% of provincial, city, municipal LGUs reject communist rebels –DILG

At least 1,546 of the 1,715 local government units in the country have declared the Communist Party of the Philippines as persona non grata, Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said Friday.

Año said that the 1,546 LGUs consist of 64 provinces, 110 cities, and 1,372 municipalities.

In a statement, he also said that at least 12,474 of the 42,046 barangays in the country have also shut their doors on the local communists, also rejecting the rebels as persona non grata (unwanted persons).

"Maliwanag pa sa sikat ng araw na isinusuka na ng sambayanan ang mga komunista at ang mga front organizations nito. Nagpapasalamat kami sa mga LGUs na nagsasarado ng kanilang pintuan at ipinapakita ang kanilang mariing pagtutol sa mga komunistang grupo.” 

Año lauded the LGUs for their move. “Much like the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to finally end this very old problem using a whole-of-nation approach, and the support from our LGUs gives us great assurance that we are not alone in this war.”

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has been allotted a P19-billion budget for 2021—the amount is over seven times higher than the P2.5 billion allotted for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.

Under the NTF-ELCAC are 17 Regional Task Forces, 81 Provincial Task Forces, 1,405 City, and Municipal Task Forces, and 26,044 Barangay Task Forces.

“Kailangan talagang magkaisa na tayo laban sa CPP-NPA-NDF dahil wala silang pinipiling panahon para makapanlinlang at mabuyo ang mga mamamayan na makianib sa kanila at mag-aklas laban sa pamahalaan," Año pointed out.

The New People’s Army (NPA) is the armed wing of the CPP while NDF (National Democratic Front) is the umbrella organization of all communist groups in the country.

“The DILG is looking forward to seeing more LGUs join us in this fight,"  Año added. —LBG, GMA News