Pinoyvote.info

The administration has warned its own senatorial candidates not to pay revolutionary taxes to the New People’s Army as they take the campaign trail toward known rebel-infested areas of Bicol region and Quezon province.

Team Unity spokesman Ace Durano said anybody in the senatorial ticket found guilty of giving in to the NPA can be removed from the lineup.

“That will be a violation not only of the government’s policy of not giving aid to a known enemy but also of existing laws of the Commission on Elections,” Durano said in an interview.

All senatorial candidates of Team Unity except for re-electionist Edgardo Angara will hold Pulong Sulong or town hall meetings in Bicol today before proceeding to Quezon province for another round of sorties.

Durano said the campaign organizers have also taken measures to ensure the safety of the candidates and their respective delegation as they fan out to the areas which are known strongholds of the NPA. “All our sorties have been carried out with careful planning and in the case of these two areas, with much attention to security.”

Earlier, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye warned politicians not to yield to the demands of the NPA to pay permit to campaign and permit to win taxes in rebel-infested areas.

“The government calls on all candidates, particularly those running for local posts, not to yield to the extortion. Everyone must cooperate to ensure honest, credible, clean and peaceful polls unhampered by threats, intimidation, vote buying and fraud,” Bunye said.

Last year, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales warned that the communist rebels would hike their revolutionary taxes by up to 10 percent during the polls. The military had estimated that the NPA has been collecting at least P30 million a month in revolutionary taxes in Mindanao, P20 million a month in Central Luzon and about the same amount in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region.

Fees paid by politicians who are running in NPA-infested areas for campaign permits during the election period could also run to millions of pesos.

But while all Team Unity candidates are one in rejecting the revolutionary taxes being collected by the NPA, they have also expressed differing opinions on how to address the insurgency problem.

Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri said the government has to address its image problem that has pushed people in the provinces into supporting the rebels as their hope against poverty.

“This is something that will not be won by combat alone. This is a matter of winning the hearts and minds of the people who continue to support the NPA,” Zubiri said.

Former Senators Vicente Sotto III and Tessie Aquino Oreta also called on the government to immediately resume the stalled negotiations with the NPA even as the Palace pursues its policy of crushing the three-decade old communist movement.

“Dialog will still be the key to finding long-lasting solutions for this problem. And the government should accept the fact that communism is an ideology that should not be outlawed,” Oreta said.

Joyce Pangco Pañares