From the Business Mirror (Jan 15): AFP chief, governor sign MOA declaring Pampanga insurgency-free
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In Photo: Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista (center) and Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda (right) exchange pleasantries shorty after the signing of a memorandum of agreement declaring Pampanga an insurgent-free province at the King’s Royale Hotel on Tuesday. Joining them is Nolcom Cmdr. Lt. Gen Pio Catapang Jr. (Leo Villacarlos)
BACOLOR, Pampanga—Gov. Lilia Pineda and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel T. Bautista on Wednesday led the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) here, declaring Pampanga an insurgency-free province.
In Photo: Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista (center) and Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda (right) exchange pleasantries shorty after the signing of a memorandum of agreement declaring Pampanga an insurgent-free province at the King’s Royale Hotel on Tuesday. Joining them is Nolcom Cmdr. Lt. Gen Pio Catapang Jr. (Leo Villacarlos)
BACOLOR, Pampanga—Gov. Lilia Pineda and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel T. Bautista on Wednesday led the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) here, declaring Pampanga an insurgency-free province.
The two leaders see sustained economic growth and development in the province as a result of sustained peace.
Pineda and Bautista were joined by the Pampanga Mayors’ League (PML) led by its president, Apalit Mayor Oscar “Jun” Tetangco, North Luzon (Nolcom) Cmdr. Gen. Gregorio Catapang Jr. and Pampanga Police Director Sr. Supt. Oscar Albaylade in the MOA signing which declared Pampanga “peaceful and ready for further development.”
Bautista said Pampanga was the 43rd province declared insurgency-free and among the last ones among the 80 provinces.
Bautista said the “fruits of the AFP’s people-centered attitude made more Filipinos believe in the real intention of the military to push progress, peace and stability.” He said there are at least 120,000 members of the AFP and they are supported by some 62,000 Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) members.
Catapang, who was extensively assigned in Pampanga as a junior army officer, said the declaration will make Central Luzon “a super economic region.”
Brig. Gen. Henry Sabarre, commander of the 703rd Infantry, said “there are no more New People’s Army [NPA] bases and members operating in Pampanga.”
He is in charge of the seven Central Luzon provinces except Aurora and Nueva Ecija.
“What we have here are NPA remnants,” he said.
Tetangco, a prominent businessmen engaged in construction and real estate, said “the most important thing for investors is peace before they decide to invest.”
“Roads can be made but peace is necessary to attract more investors,” Tetangco said.
Vic Ubaldo, assistant regional director of the National Economic and Development Authority, earlier told the BusinessMirror that “Pampanga is favored by investors” among the provinces in Central Luzon.
Pineda said Pampanga is the center of business in Luzon, adding that “all major companies and offices are in Pampanga,” including the City of San Fernando and Clark Freeport.
In a recent National Statistical Coordination Board report, Pampanga was ranked among the 10 most developed provinces in the country, with total investment pegged at P95 billion in 2012.
The total investment in Pampanga is at least 76 percent of the investments in Central Luzon, the same report said.
Pineda said “it’s fitting that Pampanga was declared insurgency-free because it was in the province that the leftist movement was launched.”
In 1932, Pedro Abad Santos, who was born in San Fernando, Pampanga, founded the Socialist Party of the Philippines. It’s in the same party that the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was born in 1969 and was started at the boundary of Pampanga and Tarlac.
Pineda hailed Bautista for “his effective ways in the AFP to help bring about progress.”
Board Member Rosve Henson said “the MOA was signed following the passage of the resolution allowing Pineda to forge an agreement with the military.”