TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan has declared this province as “insurgency-free and in a state of stable internal peace and security” during its 117th regular session last week.
DOWNTOWN Tuguegarao City (Wikipedia)
Gov. Manuel Mamba, chairperson of the Provincial Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Council (PJSCC) and the Peace, Law Enforcement, and Development Support Cluster (PLED), recommended the declaration through a resolution to the SP during the Fourth Quarter Joint Meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC), Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council (PADAC), and Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC).
Mamba thanked the SP for approving the resolution and cited the efforts of various sectors and the military for a successful campaign against insurgency in this province.
Capt. Gavin Salalima, spokesperson of the 502nd Infantry Brigade, said Cagayan was declared insurgency free after the East and West Front and the Komiteng Probinsiya Cagayan formed by the New People’s Army (NPA) in 2011 was dismantled.
Salalima also cited the neutralization of NPA officials in Cagayan – Michael Cedrick Casano and Patricia Nicole Cierva – and the mass abandonment of members and supporters for the declaration.
This province will be formally declared insurgency free on Dec. 30.