Insurgents earning P30 M a month in Central Luzon

ANGELES CITY - Communist insurgency has become a "thriving business" in Central Luzon, raking in as much as P30 million a month in so-called "revolutionary taxes" being collected by the New People’s Army (NPA) and its rival group, the Rebolu—syonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB), an Army commander said yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, commander of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion, told reporters that the manpower strength of the communist movement in his area of jurisdiction — the Central Luzon provinces, Aurora and Pangasinan — has risen by six to seven percent in the past three years.

Still, estimates that the NPA now has about 7,000 guerrillas with some 6,000 firearms are much lower that in 1988 when the rebel group had about 25,000 members with some 15,000 firearms.

"The six to seven percent increase in the NPA strength could be attributed to the disbandment of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU)," Carolina said.

In the 1980s, he said the CAFGU had about 80,000 members throughout the country. At present, only about 30,000 have been organized.

"If left alone, people are open to recruitment by the communist rebels," he said.

Carolina said the amount of revolutionary taxes, which the RHB and NPA collect in the 7th IB’s turf, is about as much as that being collected by their counterparts in the Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) area.

"(The communist rebels) are engaged in extortion, masqueraded as ‘revolutionary tax’ impositions, on bus companies, quarry operators and other businesses," he said, adding that most of the funds they raise are used to buy firearms from illegal sources.

In Bulacan, he said the NPA even gets a percentage of the earnings of jueteng operators.

"But (a portion) of the huge funds they raise are squandered in graft and corruption also existing in the hierarchy of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The small guerrillas live miserable lives, while top communist leaders seem to be well-off," he said.

Carolina cited the case of guerrillas in Davao where he was formerly based, where guerrillas even failed to get the P300 monthly allowance for their families.

He could not say, however, whether communist rebels in Central Luzon also receive a monthly allowance.

Carolina said the RHB, organized under the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP) which broke away from the CPP-NPA in 1998, "is an easier problem to handle than the mainstream NPA."

"The conflict between the NPA and the RHB is over turf, not ideology," Carolina said, adding that the RHB lacks "ideological commitment."

Carolina said at least 10,000 more CAFGU members should be enlisted to counter the rebels’ recruitment efforts.