NDF CHAIR BELITTLES GLO PEACE, ORDER EFFORTS

NATIONAL Democratic Front (NDF) consultant Jose Maria Sison belittled the
capability of the Arroyo administration "to stamp out syndicated crimes in
the country, saying that these gangsters are (even) in cohorts with the
President's military and police officers."

This developed even as Arroyo, in her second State of the Nation Address
(Sona) scheduled Monday afternoon, is expected to ask Congress to enact a
law that would strengthen her administration's all-out war on terrorism and
other criminalities.

Sison claimed that the country's all-out war on terrorism is doomed to fail
for as long as police and military officers are "extremely factionalized
according to conflicting political loyalties and ambitions as well as
according to competing interests in lucrative criminal activities, including
kidnap-for-ransom, smuggling, drug trafficking, jueteng and white slavery."

"The current ruling administration cannot be too sure about the loyalty of
the military and police officers when the masses surge again just like in
the final days of Marcos or Estrada," said the NDF chair, in a statement
sent via e-mail to some Baguio media.

Saying Arroyo lacked sincerity in talking peace with the communist movement,
Sison noted that the present administration indefinitely suspended
government's peace negotiations with the NDF.

He said the suspension of the peace talks has something to do with the
government's plan "to eliminate the rebels and to escalate the campaign of
suppression against the people and the people's army in utter subservience
to the move of the US to pursue large-scale terrorism under the pretext of
combating small-scale terrorism."

It may be noted also that some Cordillera leaders have blamed the Arroyo
regime for the "growing insurgency in the region" because it has turned deaf
to the implementation of the 1986 Mt. Data peace accord.

Officials of the Cordillera Regional Assembly (CRA), through a resolution,
added that Arroyo must be warned that "the continued inaction, violation and
failure to implement the peace and order accord" would lead to
destabilization "in this part of the country."

The 1996 Mt. Data peace accord came after the former rebels, the Cordillera
Peoples Liberation Army led by slain rebel priest Conrado Balweg, laid down
their arms and returned to the folds of law during the Aquino
administration.

In turn, Aquino issued Executive Order 220, which created the CRA,
Cordillera Executive Board and its political arm, the Cordillera Bodong
Administration. The three bodies were supposed to prepare the region for
autonomy, which remained unattained up to the present.

Meanwhile, thousands of urban poor individuals and families in Baguio and in
other areas of the Cordilleras have been provided with jobs, low-cost
housing, health insurance, and other socio-economic benefits since Arroyo
delivered her first SONA last year.

This was according to the report of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS),
adding that Arroyo was also responsible for the distribution of the more
than 4,000 hectares of lands, including ancestral domain titles to
indigenous communities and landless farmers in the region.

The PMS regional report, which will form part of the speech of Arroyo in her
second Sona, outlined the accomplishments of the Arroyo administration
vis-a-vis the national targets or promises of the President in her first
report to the nation.

The report revealed that some 1,189 households in the region have been
provided housing assistance through slum upgrading, resettlement, sites and
services, cooperative housing, and other socialized housing programs.

Some 36,535 beneficiaries from the 7,307 urban poor families in the region
were also enrolled in the National Health Insurance Program through the
assistance of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation in the region. A
total of 14,637 households were also given health insurance coverage.

The report added that more than 31,000 jobs were generated in agriculture
that contributed to the increase in net employment by 20,000 as reported by
the National Statistics Office in the region in October 2001.

This developed even as P65.76 million was also allotted for the Department
of Agriculture in the region, P60 million of which have been utilized for
the GMA rice and corn, high value crops, and livestock programs under the
Agriculture Fisheries Modernization Act.

Some 34 barangays located in the remotest areas in the region were also
provided with energy even as another 34 school buildings were completed in
18 other areas in the Cordillera.

Meanwhile, with peace and order as one of her principal tasks, Arroyo was
directly behind the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the
North Luzon Command of the Armed Forces and the Cordillera Police Regional
Office, spelling out their respective roles in the newly-created Task Force
Rice Terraces, which is aimed at galvanizing community action and vigilance
against robbery incidents in the locality.

Other accomplishments included the improvement of student-textbook ration;
upgrade of Math and Science teaching; establishment of GMA rolling stores
that served more than 2,293 barangays; distribution of half-priced medicines
to four government-owned hospitals; and establishments of one-stop shop
processing centers and customer complaint desks.