Mayor calls for national government intervention in armed conflict

By Dolly Yasa 

BACOLOD City – Mayor Ella Celestina D. Garcia-Yulo of Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental on Tuesday called on the national government to intervene in providing a solution to the resurgence of armed conflict in the countryside.

Yulo said that the local government needs the support of the national government to usher in development and progress in conflict areas like the upland sitios of the town where a series of armed skirmishes between the government troops and the New People’s Army (NPA) took place.

The series of encounters during the weekend affected 250 families in the area.

Yulo lamented that families get separated, like a mother and her daughter who sought refuge in the barangay-covered court while the father was in another group of evacuees.

Yulo said that the local government’s hands are tied because of limited resources.

“We need the intervention of the national government,” the mayor said.

She pointed out that more roads are needed in the area to make it accessible for the farmers to transport their produce to the town proper.

“If there is development and progress, insurgency will not thrive,” she said.

She added that the evacuees have returned to their respective homes.