Camarines archbishop scores Reds’ permit-to-campaign fees

NAGA CITY — Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi of Nueva Caceres has denounced the permit-to-campaign (PTC) fees being demanded by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (NPA) from politicians who are running in the May 10 national and local elections.

In a pastoral letter, which was read in all Catholic churches in Camarines Sur on Palm Sunday, Legaspi described the permit-to-campaign fee as a form of extortion.

"It is pitiful to observe what’s happening during elections, yet here comes another which will aggravate the situation," he said.

"The NPAs say the taxation/extortion happens in their alleged controlled areas or territories. However, this is contrary to what is really happening. This is done in the entire country," he added.

Legaspi said taxation is a legitimate action only of a sovereign state. "Are the NPAs a sovereign state within another sovereign state?" he asked.

The archbishop also expressed concern that candidates who cannot pay PTC fees cannot reach people in certain areas. This, he said, constitutes a violation of citizens’ rights.

Those who have money, he added, will then have a bigger chance of winning in the elections.

"Isn’t it that this only widens the gap between the rich and the poor? And isn’t it the aim of the leftist revolution to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor?" Legaspi said.

The bottom line, he said, is that the NPA is only exacerbating one of the most serious problems in the country today — corruption in the public and private sectors.

"We can see this in the provinces where politicians who are known to be corrupt and with money bow down to the NPA’s demands. These are the people with the biggest chances of winning in elections," Legaspi said.

Maj. Gen. John Bolhayon, commander of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division based at Camp Canuto in Pili, Camarines Sur, said he supports the issues raised by the Dominican archbishop.

"This is the first time that a very high leader of the Catholic Church has acted on the issue of NPA extortion," he said.

Bolhayon said the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) should adopt a similar stand against the CPP-NPA’s extortion activities.

Bolhayon said the issues on PTC fees which Legaspi raised are true and threaten to undermine the true intent of Philippine elections.

"This will finally confirm what we have been suspecting all along that some corrupt, rich candidates or incumbent officials are supporting or conniving with or sleeping with the enemy just to ensure their victory in the polls, thus strengthening their hold in their respective areas," Bolhayon said.

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, spokesman of the CPP-NPA, has publicly admitted that funds they derive from permit-to-campaign fees are used to finance their so-called "people’s war" in the countryside.

In August last year, Gen. Narciso Abaya, Armed Forces chief, revealed that the CPP-NPA collected about P600 million from candidates during the 2001 national elections.

"Giving in to the NPA’s demands only makes politicians accomplices to a crime," Abaya said.

He said that while the government is struggling to have clean, honest and orderly elections, all candidates must also free themselves from the NPA’s grip.