Benguet gov heads Cordi peace council

BANAWE, Ifugao — Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan presided over a regional body for the first time Friday after Ifugao Gov. Teddy Baguilat sworn him in as the new chair of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC).

Benguet Governor Nestor Fongwan. Photo by Lyn V. Ramo/NORDIS

Fongwan, a contender of another regional body, the Regional Development Council (RDC), took his oatch of office in a fitting ceremony before Baguilat, who also chaired the same body before.

RPOC Vice-chair, Police Regional Office Director Eugene Martin was among those attending the RPOC meeting. Outgoing Chair Maximo Dalog, who now chairs the RDC, missed the meeting Fongwan presided over.

RPOC meets quarterly in different venues to highlight the peace and order problems and issues of the host province.

The next meeting is temporarily slated last week of August or first week of September in Tabuk, Kalinga.

While the composition is similar to that with the RDC, RPOC tackles completely different issues, according to Fongwan.

Among the resolutions passed during the meeting in ifugao is the granting resolution asking lawmakers the immediate concurrence of the Proclamation No. 1377 entitled “Granting amnesty to members of the Communist Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and other communist rebel groups.”

The body also discussed the holding of a women and children’s summit and the creation of a task force to investigate boundary issues between Ifugao and Mountain Province. # Lyn V. Ramo