Reds demanding P1.5-M ‘permit fee’

New People’s Army (NPA) rebels are reportedly demanding as much as P1.5 million in "permit to campaign" (PTC) fees from gubernatorial and mayoral candidates as well as their vice governor, vice mayor, provincial board members and councilors.

Individual PTC fees for gubernatorial aspirants reportedly cost at least P500,000, while candidates for congressional seats will have to fork out at least P300,000.

Mayoral bets in cities will reportedly have to pay as much as P300,000, while the fees to be extorted from those running as town mayor will depend on the class of the municipality, which ranges from first to sixth.

Sources said the lowest amount has been pegged at P50,000.

It is not yet clear how much the rebels are demanding from candidates for president, vice president and senators, but it would probably reach as much as P3 million to P5 million.

Reports quoting Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) senior spokesman, said the rebels may also accept PTC fees "in kind," which are mostly in the form of firearms and ammunition.

During the 2001 national and local elections, the NPA reportedly collected between P40 million to P50 million in PTCs from candidates.

Earlier, Rosal said PTC fees are being imposed on candidates as part of the rebel movement’s exercise of its "political authority" in areas under their control.

Rebel leaders insist that there exists "two political authorities" in the country since the National Democratic Front (NDF) has claimed to have acquired a status of belligerency.

Authorities said the NPA has been collecting so-called revolutionary taxes from businessmen within "guerilla zones" to offset the worldwide crackdown on the CPP-NPA-NDF’s financial support from abroad.

The crackdown came after the US government tagged the CPP as a "terrorist" organization in 2002.

So far, the only bank account frozen was that of exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison, which was actually given to him by the Dutch government as a "political refugee" in the Netherlands.

The on-and-off peace talks with the communist rebels were suspended by President Arroyo in mid-2001 after the NDF peace panel refused to call off the NPA’s political killings. Among those killed were Representatives Rodolfo Aguinaldo of Cagayan and Marcial Punzalan of Quezon.

Meanwhile, Rosal has called on the 9,300-strong NPA to step up its offensives to help oust Mrs. Arroyo.

Rosal made the call in a secret interview somewhere in the Cordilleras last Thursday, according to the Philippine-based alternative internet-based news weekly BULATLAT.COMCPP.

Quoting Rosal, Bulatlat said Mrs Arroyo’s record of human rights violations against civilians "is even worse than that of Marcos."

"Many were killed during martial law, but they were members of the Party, they were cadres," Bulatlat quoted Rosal as saying.

Rosal told a secret press conference in the Cordilleras many civilians have been killed during Mrs. Arroyo’s time, unlike when martial law was in effect.

"In Marcos’s time there were not too many massacres in, for instance, Southern Tagalog," he said.

"Many were arrested and there were those who were killed. We have many comrades who are missing to this day without any trace.

"But in terms of the number of civilians killed, deliberately attacked in military operations or forcibly taken from their kaingin to be killed and declared as members of the New People’ s Army, Gloria is

worse, even worse than Marcos. Definitely she is worse than Erap, although it was Erap who started that," he said.

Rosal said that nothing can make Mrs. Arroyo win in the May 10 elections, except support from the United States.

Mrs. Arroyo has been tailing Fernando Poe Jr. and Raul Roco in recent surveys, he added.

Rosal said the "only remaining option" for Mrs. Arroyo is to cheat in the elections so she could win a full six-year-term.

"Why does the Comelec insist on computerizing the counting system in spite of warnings by experts that doing so would be risky, in spite of the joint resolution by the Senate and the House making the automation of the counting system selective?" he asked.

"We see massive cheating in the coming elections. The elections will be high-tech, the cheating will also be high-tech," Rosal said.

In the latest issue of the CPP news organ Ang Bayan, Armando Liwanag, believed to be Sison’s nom de guerre, said the NPA is in control of more than 8,000 barangays nationwide.

"They are in substantial portions of 700 to 800 municipalities and cities (about 50 percent of the total) and in more than 90 percent of the provinces," he said

Communist guerrillas remain a serious problem despite battlefield losses over the past year, Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero told reporters yesterday.

The NPA saw its ranks decline to about 8,800 at the end of 2003 compared with 9,200 a year earlier, he added.

Lucero saod government forces killed or captured 875 guerrillas and seized 321 firearms in 299 clashes over the same period.

However, Lucero said the NPA remained in 107 "guerrilla fronts," or areas of operation, and that its arsenal had increased slightly to 6,133 firearms compared with 6,120 a year earlier.

The rebels focussed on "strengthening and multiplying their front organizations as their political support for their armed struggle," he added.

Mrs. Arroyo called off peace talks with communists rebels two years ago following the assassination of several politicians by NPA hit squads. — Benjie Villa, Artemio Dumlao, Marvin Sy, Jaime Laude, AFP