The government’s decades-long effort to achieve lasting peace and security has come to fruition.

By adopting the whole-of-nation approach under Executive Order 70 that created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF- ELCAC), the Philippines has relished an almost insurgency-free country, and it can continue pursuing programs to attain an inclusive and sustainable peace and development all over the country.

This is what a democratically-elected government has yearned for, which the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army-– National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) has been trying to violently overthrow and replace it with an autocratic and tyrannical communist regime.

On its part, the security and defense sector has remained comprehensive in its extensive campaign to defeat the communist insurgency.

Along with this campaign are the efforts, in cooperation with other government agencies, intended to inform and educate vulnerable sectors of the communities about the government’s development interventions and, at the same time, provide them with sustainable livelihood programs by bringing together their entrepreneurial and technical skills. Through this approach, the public’s cynical mindset has changed. Filipinos have learned to trust and support the government’s intervention efforts and the holistic and inclusive process involved.

On the other hand, military efforts do not just focus on coordinated actions for combat operations on the ground. (PR)