End to Insurgency: a Second Wish for 2007

The situation is not alarming but people have reason to be concerned about the series of hold ups that were recently staged by daring hold uppers in some of the municipalities and the City of Tagbilaran . It certainly will not give anyone a feeling of security if people coming out of or going to the bank would get held up on the street. That this happened towards the end of last year and in the beginning of the new year can indeed be disconcerting and perplexing to the people whether this is the trend and pattern that they will see for the rest of the year. People can't help but ask where the police is. It may be unfair to the police knowing that they are doing their best and the victims could be partly blamed for not using precaution when walking with large sums of money. But it is still police matter. And people will always turn to the police on these instances.

If it is any consolation, this is not the trend for this year in Bohol . Police Provincial Director Arturo Evangelista explained during the meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) at the headquarters of the 302nd Brigade Friday that criminals who usually operate in Cebu may have been driven by the heightened security campaign there on account of the Asean Summit next week. Moreover, the number of policemen in Bohol has been depleted as some of them were sent to augment the security force in Cebu for the summit. PD Evangelista assured the public that his command is doubling up its efforts to arrest the hold uppers and or prevent a repetition. He however said people can help by not providing the opportunity to the criminals by walking on the streets with large some of money with them.

It is only right and proper that the public be assuaged because for many of us, the more than a year now that there has been no violent encounters between our Armed Forces and the communists NPAs while the number of surenderees has gone up is a cause for thanksgiving. The long silence of the guns and the realization on the part of the revolutionaries that there is no cause to rebel any more is something that we should all be thankful for. Perhaps we can now safely conclude that peace has indeed come to Bohol .

The time for counting fallen bodies is now over. This is now the time for all forces and agencies to join together and consolidate the gains and resources and bring development to those once neglected and forgotten barangays and their population. It is now time to inventory what stock there is in the barn, so to speak, or how much is there in the coffer that could be programmed for the depressed barangays. Then our efforts to replicate if not export this Bohol experience to other provinces of the country, as indeed our experience is now becoming a byword among peace circles, shall have been more complete and rooted in concrete terms. And then the end to the problem of insurgency in the country that we all wish and aspire shall really be within our reach now. This is our second wish for this year.