Cordillera remains among safest regions in the Philippines

Cordillera - The Cordillera Administrative Region has maintained it's status as among the safest regions in the country.

In the Kasama sa Pamana Regional Pre-SONA Series held in Baguio City on June 1, 2021, Department of Agriculture Secretary, Regional Development and Security of the Cordillera Cabinet Officer William Dar said in his report that Cordillera is among the safest regions in the country as a result of the drop of crime incidence due to  effective implementation of law enforcement and anti-illegal drug campaign of the government.

"Crime incidents in the region dropped year on year since 2016 with the effective implementation of law enforcement and the anti-illegal drug campaign," Dar said.

"Intensified police operation to the arrest of the top three most wanted person and 1,717 wanted person in 2020 alone," he added.

The continuing fight against illegal drugs also led to the arrest  of 444 drug personalities and around P588.32 million worth of illegal drugs were  confiscated, Dar added.

On improved security, Dar also congratulated the communities and the people of the region for their effort and participation in the localization of Executive Order  No.  70  institutionalizing  the whole - of – nation approach in attaining inclusive and lasting peace and  creating   the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF – ELCAC).

Through the regional and local ELCAC task forces, there are  harmonized  efforts in addressing insurgency and other peace and order concerns  including their root causes such as inaccessibility to basic services, poverty, social inequity and lack of knowledge on government programs and services, he added.

Through the joint efforts of national government agencies, local government units, civil society organization and the private sector, implementation of Support to the Barangay Development Program are set for eight pilot insurgency free -barangays in the region (6 in Abra, 1 in Mountain Province and 1 in Kalinga).

For this year, a total of P160 million or P20 million worth of development projects is allocated  for each of the eight barangays.   71 more identified ELCAC barangays are also set to get government support with the collaboration of all key stakeholders.

source || PIA-CAR