For Philippine Rebels, Election Is a Cash Cow
By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: March 7, 2010
MANILA — Communist guerrillas are expected to extort more money from politicians before national elections scheduled for May 10, the Philippine military said Sunday.
In a report issued to journalists, the military said that it had identified the modus operandi of the Communists in extorting what the rebels call “revolutionary taxes” from businesses and that they are more focused on collecting money from politicians in exchange for access to areas controlled or influenced by the rebels.
The commander of the armed forces’ civil relations service, Brig. Gen. Francisco N. Cruz Jr., said in the report that the Communists had even collected “permit to win” fees in exchange for a promise of victory by a candidate. He said those who refused to pay were punished.
In the report, General Cruz asked residents to report extortion and harassment to law enforcement, adding that paying the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party, would only embolden the rebels.
According to the military report, the New People’s Army started collecting “revolutionary taxes” from politicians in the 1992 elections. This year, according to officials, the Communists stand to make at least 5 billion pesos, or about $108 million.
“The going rate is from 5,000 pesos to 20 million pesos, from municipal councilor to president,” the report said, adding that candidates allied with the Communists or the N.P.A. were exempt.
The Philippine Commission on Elections had estimated earlier that the Communists collected a total of 3.5 billion pesos in the 2004 and 2007 elections. Rene Sarmiento, a commissioner, said the extortion “could threaten the existence of democracy.”
The Commission on Human Rights has denounced the Communists’ “revolutionary taxes,” calling them “repugnant in all possible ways to valued human rights principles and standards, not only of candidates and political parties, but of the individual voters as well.”
Apart from politicians, the Communists have been collecting money from those the party labels “class enemies,” mostly big businesses related to construction, mining companies, transportation or telecommunications. The military said that “standard rates” were 6 percent to 7 percent of gross income for logging operators, and 1 million to 2 million pesos for bus companies.
The rebels will also accept firearms, cellphones, medicine and equipment as payments, the military said.
The rebels have never denied that they collect what they call “taxes.” Luis Jalandoni, an official of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, an umbrella organization of revolutionary groups, said in 2004 that the payments acted as proof that “two governments exist in the Philippines.”
The only difference between his government and the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Mr. Jalandoni said, was that the rebels collected from “class enemies,” not poor Filipinos, and that the money was used to pursue the revolutionary movement while the government wasted its tax money on corruption.
The military estimates that the New People’s Army has about 5,000 regular members, down from the 25,000 it had in the mid-1980s. In the past four decades, the Communists have been waging what has become one of the longest Maoist insurgencies in the world.
Hundreds of Filipino troops searched Sunday for Communist guerrillas who killed 11 soldiers in a setback for the military’s drive to defeat a four-decade insurgency before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo leaves office in June, The Associated Press reported from Manila.
Seven other soldiers were wounded in the attack Saturday by about 60 guerrillas of the New People’s Army in Oriental Mindoro Province. It was the army’s biggest loss in a clash so far this year.
Posted on March 8, 2010, and filed under Stories, The New York Times / International Herald Tribune | Comments
