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TAGUM CITY—A
counterinsurgency summit here has proposed economic
measures heavily accented with anticorruption and
law-enforcement moves, including a proposal compelling
local governments to submit development plans before
they can receive their internal-revenue allotments
(IRA).
The
special single item on the IRA appeared in the section
“good governance” and Army Maj. Medel Aguilar, chief of
the Armed Forces’ 5th Civil Relations Group, said that
good governance was only one of the many components that
would “effectively address the many reasons why people
turn insurgent.”
The
recommendation read: “Release the IRA to the local
governments only after submission of their development
plans.”
President Arroyo did not react to the proposal, saying
this was one of the controversial recommendations in the
summit.
“Eradicate corruption and red tape by streamlining
intragovernment transactions and standard procedures on
procurement [and] establishing community-based
multisector monitor and evaluation systems for
government project implementation,” another proposal
said.
“Enhance
and modernize the pillars of our criminal justice system
[as well as] prosecute tax evaders relentlessly,” added
the proposals presented to the President.
The
summit participants also asked the administration “to
step up enforcement of the Local Government Code, Afma
[Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Act], the
Fisheries Code, National Integrated Protected Areas
System Act and the Wildlife Resources Conservation Act.”
On the
section “Socioeconomic Development,” the summit urged
the national government to “extend the term of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and adopt a more
integrated national agrarian reform program.”
Expected
to raise an uproar was the summit’s recommendation to
“revive and make the Reserve Officers Training Course
[ROTC] mandatory in the Philippines.”
Though
the need for good governance was emphasized to address
the insurgency program, Aguilar said that
“counterinsurgency should involve a lot of things,
including the move to restore the confidence of the
residents to their local officials and promoting a
culture of peace.”
Aguilar
said adopting a “comprehensive and integrated approach
that fosters the culture of peace” was intended to
address concerns on human rights and public order.
Mrs.
Arroyo has blamed the communist New People’s Army for
committing the bulk of human-rights abuses that a United
Nations special rapporteur has confirmed were occurring
in the
Philippines.
She
said, “we have seen progress and development in a big
number of rural areas, but it is the communist
insurgents who were responsible for a lot of
human-rights violations.”
Mrs.
Arroyo also tasked the Cabinet to study the proposals
raised by the Local Peace and Security Assembly summit
here. |
