TACLOBAN CITY – In order for development to flourish, peace and order and stability is important.
Thus stressed Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary (DILG) Benhur Abalos who graced the 47th Samar Island Partnership for Peace and Development (SIPPAD) meeting held in Borongan City on Friday (June 9).
Abalos was one of the invited national government official to the SIPPAD – a convergence of the three Samar Island Bishops headed by Borongan Diocese Bishop Isabelo Abarquez, Diocese of Calbayog Bishop Crispin Vasquez, and Diocese of Catarman Bishop Emmanuel Trance.
The group also include government offices like the Philippine Army, Philippine National Police, local government units, people’s organizations, and non-government organization which aims to address poverty by linking concerned agencies for provide solutions to problems in the three provinces of Samar.
Also present during the meeting were Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone, 4Ps party-list congressman and House Minority Floor leader Marcelino Libanan and Tourism regional director, Karina Rosa Tiopes.
Abalos said he was task to oversee the insurgency problem on Samar Island and needed government intervention to address this problem.
Insurgency problem continues to hunt the island particularly Northern Samar province and along its boundary to its two neighboring provinces.
To address this situation, a whole-of-the-nation approach is needed according to the DILG chief to ensure that previously affected areas which already been declared as cleared and rebel members and supporters who surrender will have no reason to return to the armed struggle.
“Wars cannot be won by guns alone, it will be won by the heart of the people,” Abalos.
Abalos added that the government should make effort in bridging the gap and address issues that greatly affect the communities, and the DILG is always ready to help the military and law enforcement agencies in their campaign for peace and prosperity.
“No tourist will come if a place is not safe. You cannot preserve the environment is there is no stability,” he said.
“If there is no peace and order, no investors will come, no tourist will come, they will avoid us,” Abalos added.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Free?
Our generation is blessed with the independence that our forefathers fought for with their lives. What we now enjoy is the fruit of the blood and lives that were offered at the altar of our freedom and democracy. After centuries of slavery under abusive colonial masters, our brave countrymen fought long battles that won us back our lost freedom. Armed with inferior weapons, our heroes fought with courage against the artillery of our foreign oppressors. They could have opted the convenient road to self-preservation and lived longer under the rule of their foreign masters. But our forebears decided to fight a justified war that will win freedom for the future generations to enjoy. Ours future generation that now reaps the benefits of their hard won battles.
As we mark this 125th commemoration of that momentous victory for our freedom and independence, it is but apt to look back at the heroic act our heroes took. Their unselfish concern for our generation led to the attainment of our independence from our oppressors. We were able to establish our own government and fly our flag independently. Our colonizers placed us under an authoritarian regime that considered us no more than slaves under the Spanish crown. After the Spanish rule, we still have to be ruled by American and Japanese invaders before we obtained liberation by a victory in a war whose credit was grabbed by the Americans, obliterating as it did, the win of our Filipino soldiers.
From one perspective, we could take the sacrifice of our forefathers as their decisive move to free us from the burden of oppression and slavery. They risked their lives fighting a battle against well armed foreign invaders, so that we could enjoy a life of freedom and liberty. Our independence was won in the battles a quarter more than a century ago. We have turned undeserving of that supreme sacrifice but we got our share of the freedom and liberty we inherited no matter what.
Our country may have been granted independence during that historical rites more than a century ago but we seem to have lost its essence over the years. After that raising of our country’s flag as a sign of our independence during that historic event on June 12, 1898, it looks like we have bungled the great benefits of that feat. Our political and economic landscape had been bastardized by foreign intervention. We have been held captive by our foreign creditors to the point that we no longer have the right to set the course of our destiny. We owe so much and we have to pay at all costs even if it means trampling upon our constitution and our sovereignty.
The sovereignty and independence that our forefathers won had been trampled upon by Chinese officials who kept intruding our national territory despite our victory in the United Nations arbitral tribunal. The situation got worse when ex-president Rodrigo Roa Duterte downplayed the arbitral award and welcomed China to continue its intrusion into our national territory. The situation had not been rectified under the new administration that is too cautious in dealing with China. And yet, we are being made to believe that we are . . . free?
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