Army: NPA backing some party-list groups, Senate bets

MANILA, Philippines - The extortion activities of communist rebels are meant to support some party-list groups and senatorial candidates, the military claimed yesterday.

Capt. Gene Orense, spokesman of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division, said the rebels would back candidates through the issuance of campaign permits in rebel-influenced areas.

“Left-leaning candidates are running under party-list groups and some personalities are even running for seats in the Senate and Congress. Their PTC (permit to campaign) and PTW (permit to win) schemes are meant to support their candidacies,” he said.

Orense said the New People’s Army (NPA) would also campaign for local candidates to obtain favors from them.

“If these candidates win, they will owe a debt of gratitude to the rebels,” he said.

Orense declined to name the candidates that have benefited from the extortion operations of the rebels.

He said the NPA also seeks to use the 2013 polls to infiltrate Congress and to use pork barrel funds to support the insurgency, he said.

Orense said the information was culled from documents seized from the rebels recently in Basey, Samar.

“Also included in the document is their main objective in joining the forthcoming elections, which is to pursue and advance their electoral struggle by infiltrating the government bureaucracy, particularly the legislative branch,” he said.

Orense said the communists seek to “access government resources,” including the priority development assistance fund or pork barrel “to support the insurgency movement.”

He said the success of the rebels’ scheme would be detrimental to the military and to the public.

“If these plans succeed, they will gain strength in terms of supporters,” the military official said.

He called on politicians to refrain from giving in to the rebels’ extortion demands.