Borongan bishop holds forum for peace, development

By ALICE NICART (PIA Eastern Samar)
September 14, 2008

BORONGAN CITY, Eastern Samar  –  “Realizing the current realities in the province, vis-à-vis, natural calamities, inflation, surge in prices of prime commodities”, His Excellency Bishop Crispin B. Varquez of Borongan Diocese invited to a forum on Friday (Sept. 12) some stakeholders, leaders and sectoral representatives.

The forum was not however in any manner held, for the purpose of fault-finding but rather for the group to discuss what the people have longed for which is real peace and development, Bishop Varquez underscored in his letter.

As Fr. Cyrain Cabuenas put it in his rationale, the invitation was primarily for the concerned leaders and agencies to shade lights on peace and development efforts, to prioritize higher values and sacrifice for the common good.

Considering peace as the main ingredient for total development, it was deemed necessary for the military and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to update the forum with the current situations in regard to peace initiatives.

On the whole, Col. Alex Albano of the 801st Battalion claimed that since 2006 up to 2008, the insurgency problem went on downtrend, barangay affectation went negative and their engineering battalion has turned busy in implementing assigned infrastructure projects.

Asked if they are on track with the Department of National Defense’ (DND) target to zero in on insurgency in 2010, Albano replied in the affirmative, and added that they are adopting the national strategy while they link their initiatives with those of the LGUs and other national agencies.

Provincial Director Prudencio de la Cruz of the PNP for his part reported of some successful police operations against illegal drugs, wanted persons, and crimes against persons and properties.  He said that, despite limited mobility and financial resources they still try to manage through.  However, de la Cruz admitted in the Open Forum that their intelligence network is rather weak which he said can be attributed to the reluctance of witnesses who can help in pursuing cases against perpetrators.

The presentation on Infrastructure Development projects was quite incomplete thus, Engineer Tili Sabulao of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) promised to give the full and exact data of other important projects in the next Forum which is scheduled for October. It was also noted that, unknown to them, sometimes, some infra projects in the province are implemented by the regional office.  Thus, in the next forum, it is also expected that more concerns as well as recommendations will surface “for the common good of Eastern Samareños”.

In closing, Fr. Euly Belizar, summarized and synthesized the reports and remarks of the forum.  It is also believed that whatever came out will contribute or are good entry points to future plans and strategies that are geared towards making Eastern Samar a better place to live in.  He concluded that as a whole, there is a need for better communication, a need for prioritizing values, need for a team that will monitor projects, need for consultation and the need for openness to other issues involved.