PEACE. All smiles are Gov. Pineda and Gen. Bautista. along with Brig. Gen. Henry Sabarre and Pampanga Mayors League President Oscar Tetangco Jr. as they hold the MOA declaring Pampanga insurgency-free. Behind them are political leaders of the province. PHOTO BY BONG LACSON
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “Peaceful, insurgency-free, ready for further development.” So was Pampanga declared by Gov. Lilia G. Pineda and Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel T. Bautista last Wednesday at the King’s Royal Hotel here.
“We showed here in Pampanga one of our victories against the 45 years of insurgency in the country. We have had the insurgency problem for so long, and so many died and suffered, and many families were broken because of that. Now it is time to end the culture of violence. It is time for us to unite and abandon the armed struggle and time to live in peace and prosperity,” Bautista said.
Pineda, for her part, said the declaration highlighted the provincial government’s responsibility in maintaining peace and order and the challenge to generate the peace and prosperity arising thereform. “We are tasked to
continue the achievement of the AFP in Pampanga.
The economic development of Pampanga is directly related to the full development of Pampanga and ensures that peace is kept even in the barangay level,” Pineda said. Bautista disclosed that Pampanga was the 43rd province to be declared peaceful and insurgency- free and the last in the area covered by the North Luzon Command (NolCom) comprising Central Luzon, the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera Autonomous Region.
Declared peaceful were La union and Nueva Vizcaya in 2009; Apayao, Aurora, Quirino, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan and Kalinga in 2010; Ilocos Norte and Benguet in 2011; Zambales, Abra and Bataan in 2012; Batanes, Ilocos Sur, Isabela, Cagayan, Ifugao, Bulacan and Mt. Province in 2013. At present, a total of 43 out
of 75 provinces nationwide were already normalized, the AFP said.
“The declaration of these provinces as peaceful and ready for further development is a manifestation of the continued support of stakeholders and our people in winning the peace,” NolCom chief, Lt. Gen.Gregorio Pio Catapang said. .
Birthplace of insurgency Pampanga being the last in the NolCom area to be declared insurgency- free, Pineda
said, “was but a natural course of history.” She reminded the military, police and local government executives
assembled at the declaration that Pampanga was the “birthplace of socialism in the country and from where
spawned the insurgency.”
It was in the early 1930’s that Pedro Abad Santos founded in San Fernando the Socialist Party of the Philippines which leadership formed the core group of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon (Hukbalahap) that spearheaded the resistance against the Japanese Occupation, evolved into the Hukbong Magpapalaya ng Bayan, that splintered to the New People’s Army. All the armed resistance were birthed in the Kapampangan region.
The “end of the insurgency” according to Bautista, was 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.” A memorandum of agreement formalizing the declaration was signed by Pineda, Bautista, Catapang and the other police and military officials.
