The Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC XI) has been reorganized, establishing the Security Affairs Committee and the Human Development Committee, to support the peace paradigm of the Aquino administration.
Governor Rodolfo del Rosario, who is also the RPOC chair, said Pres. Aquino favors a shift in the peace framework from military victory to human development approach.
“I noticed that RPOC is more like a committee-of-the-whole tackling only security matters, leaving non-security agencies like DepEd, DOH, DSWD, and others, as mere audience. By creating the Human Development Committee, these non-security agencies, together with the LGUs must also be made to report what they are doing in terms of health, education, and income opportunities,” del Rosario said in an interview.
He said better health, education and income opportunities are salient prerequisites in attaining and maintaining peace.
Del Rosario intends to utilize the Human Development Committee to endorse to the council potential areas where the region’s share of the P958 million PAMANA funds of Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process is to be invested.
“With certain criteria like intensity of insurgency, levels of poverty, among others, I think that the funds can really be targeted to those communities with critical peace and order situation,” he added.
The reorganization at the regional level is expected to cascade down to the provincial, city, and municipal peace and order councils.
