NPA campaign fees not a peace talks issue, Reds insist

Communist rebels refuse to discuss the issue of so-called permit-to-campaign fees amid Wednesday’s attempt on the life of Occidental Mindoro Rep. Josephine Ramirez-Sato by the New People’s Army (NPA).

Gregorio Rosal, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesman, said the issue of imposing "permit-to-campaign" fees on candidates will not be an issue during peace talks set to be held in Beijing, China on March 29.

"The resolution of socio-economic and political reform agendas in the peace talks are prior matters that should be settled first and with dispatch, and should not precede the question of the permit-to-campaign policy of the Communist Party of the Philippines," he said.

Rosal said the fees, which are collected in the form of money, food, firearms and ammunitions, are "part and parcel" of the "revolutionary governmental functions" of the rebel movement.

"(The CPP can impose) taxes and other fees within guerrilla zones (because it has attained) a status of belligerency vis-à-vis the government," he said.

Rosal said "revolutionary authorities" have as much right to impose and collect "fees and taxes" as the government.

"Campaign-to-permit" fees collected from candidates do not constitute extortion as they are "official payments and voluntary contributions" in accordance with "revolutionary governmental policies and laws," he added.

A certain Higom Magarang of the NPA’s Lucio de Guzman Command in Occidental Mindoro said the NPA ambushed Ramirez-Sato’s convoy because she refused to pay permit-to-campaign fees and had brought along soldiers to protect her during campaign sorties.

Politicians have earlier condemned the NPA’s extortion activities, and urged the government to take up the issue during the negotiations. – Benjie Villa