TACLOBAN CITY – Members of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) from the National Capital Region(NCR) visited their counterparts in the region to learn and possibly adopt their best practices.
The NCR-RPOC members met with their counterparts in the region at the regional office of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Monday (June 19).
“We want to personally hear from them and also learn several other programs which we can also adopt in Metro Manila like the Women Peace Table,” Maria Laurdes Agustin, DILG-NCR director, said.
“We wanted to see how the women are able to participate in governance and in peace-building. This is more of an exchanging of information and program that we can learn from,” she added.
Women Peace Table is a program of the RPOC-8 and the DILG launched during the 1st quarterly meeting held in Catarman, Northern Samar, the aim of which is to include women as active players in peace-building and not view them as mere “victims” of conflicts and not “actors” to end wars.
The Women Peace Table initiative is an integral part of Eastern Visayas Regional Peace and Prosperity Roadmap produced through brainstorming of all the six governors of the region providing a venue for the inclusive discussion of issues relevant to peace and development by stakeholders, create consensus on issues, plan and collaborate on actions, appreciate the diversity of identities and views, and promote healing and reconciliation.
The program is supported by five pillars that serve as purpose to attain just and lasting peace. These pillars are sound business and economic development, responsible use and equitable distribution of resources, high levels of human capital, social cohesion, and strong and stable inter-local government ties.
“Although Metro Manila and Leyte have different settings, interventions to address the issues can be replicated by reconfiguring it to attune it with the condition of NCR,” Agustin said.
“We should adopt peer to peer learning. Why do we have to create our own if there is already one that is working. We are here to know how it works and how we can adopt it to our own conditions,” she added.
Prior to the meeting with RPOC-8 members at the DILG regional office, the group along with Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan,RPOC-8 chair, made a courtesy call to Leyte Gov.Leopoldo Dominico Petilla.
Gov. Petilla presented to them the programs and interventions of the provincial government in hard-to-reach and conflict-affected barangays under its More Income to the Countryside Program (MIC-P).
Agustin said that after their meeting with Gov. Petilla and the RPOC-8 members, they will convene again to talk and discuss the programs in Eastern Visayas that are doable in Metro Manila.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
