Central Luzon Rebs Impose ‘Campaign Fees’ For Polls

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Communist rebels have reportedly imposed "fixed campaign fees" on candidates who want to campaign in areas supposedly under their influence in Central Luzon.

For the New People’s Army (NPA), campaign fees range from P10,000 to much as P250,000, while for its rival faction, the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB), the fees are about 50 percent less.

Chief Superintendent Enrique Galang, Central Luzon police director, said the police and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) have classified 303 barangays in the region as "areas of concern," although only Angat and Doña Remedios Trinidad towns in Bulacan, where insurgency and political rivalries are more serious, have been tagged as "areas of immediate concern."

He said election monitoring action centers are now being set up in various areas in the region to help authorities cope with election-related problems.

Galang cited subversive documents seized from communist rebels as well as testimonies from captured guerrillas as purportedly indicating that the NPA is imposing a campaign fee of P10,000 for each candidate for a councilor seat, P30,000 for vice mayor, P50,000 for mayor, P200,000 for governor and congressman, and P250,000 for senator.

The RHB is reportedly demanding half these amounts.

Galang, however, said, they have yet to receive any report that a candidate has paid the rebels such a fee.