May 23, 20214 min read

Most LGUs declare communist insurgents as persona non grata- Malaya

Majority of the country’s local government units (LGUs) have provided support to the national government’s efforts to end the more than five decades of communist insurgency in the country by declaring the group as persona non grata in their respective localities, an official of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Monday, May 24.

“As one of the lead implementing agencies in localizing Executive Order (EO) No. 70, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) remains steadfast in working closely with the local government units (LGUs) to end the decades-long Communist terrorism problem in the Philippines,’’ Malaya said who is also the spokesperson for local government affairs, barangay development program, international engagement of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), said DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya.

“For many decades, Filipinos have been deceived, manipulated, extorted, and murdered by CTGs (government describes communist insurgents as Community Terrorist Groups) in their goal to overthrow the Philippine government and establish a communist rule,’’ he added.

In his presentation during the NTF-ELCAC briefing, Malaya reported that latest DILG figures revealed that 1,436 LGUs out of the 1,715 LGUs in the country have approved resolutions denouncing the atrocities of the CTGs and declared them persona non grata.

The remaining 279 LGUs are in various stages of deliberation in their respective provincial, city, and municipal councils.

“This means that 84 percent of LGUs nationwide have formally expr