Is anyone paying revolutionary taxes?

We got a lot of comments on the article we wrote last Wednesday on the remarkable story of how the Z-Plan, (a.k.a. The Koga Papers), the defense plan of the Japanese Imperial Navy for the Pacific, which by force of luck and a typhoon ended in the hands of Cebu guerrillas under the command of Lt. Col. James M. Cushing, an American mining engineer who lead the Cebu guerrilla movement during World War II. As we’ve said, the article was published in the quarterly magazine Prologue of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Now the story has been officially told that this incident speeded up plans by Gen. Douglas MacArthur to fulfill his famous "I Shall Return" promise by skipping Mindanao and moving up to Tacloban, Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944.

At this point, I would like government officials to recognize the role of Col. James Cushing during World War II, which is now almost forgotten. This is something which I believe should also be pursued by the National Historical Institute so that someday it could be written in our history books for our children and their children to read.

A year ago, we wrote about the lost grave of Col. Cushing at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, which my friend, Lou Jurika, tried to search when she personally came to the Philippines. Cushing died a poor man on board a steamer to Palawan and one of his last wishes was that he be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani instead of the American Cemetery, as he wanted to lie among Filipino heroes. Apparently, they granted Col. Cushing’s last wish.

Jurika went to the Libingan ng mga Bayani and found out that Cushing was on the official graves registration, but unfortunately, the grave was missing. A week ago, my uncle, Col. Manuel Segura (retired), came to my office bringing with him colored photos of a cross that bore the name James M. Cushing taken by a friend at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

This could be indeed Cushing’s lost grave. However, something written below the cross made me question the photos as the words carved below the name of Cushing was "Capas-Death". Even my uncle thought of it as strange as Col. Cushing was never in Luzon during the war.

I reckon that when we wrote that very embarrassing article about the missing grave of Col. Cushing, who knows, maybe the graves officer had a new cross hastily (or maybe, he found the old one) built and had the name of Col. James Cushing carved into the cross. The problem, however, is that he didn’t know the history of Col. Cushing and probably assumed that Cushing died in the death march in Capas, Tarlac. So I’ll just wait for my friend Lou Jurika to return to the country to check whether this cross is really the one that marks the remains of Col. Cushing, who in my book was a true hero.

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Exactly a week ago we wrote about the concerns of many Globe subscribers about the firm‘s "unprotected" cell sites, two of which have been bombed recently by suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) — one in Tagbilaran City, Bohol and another in Danao City, Cebu. Last Tuesday, when the article written by Paolo Romero entitled "GMA orders tighter security on telecom cell sites" came out, I said to myself that now we can heave a sigh of relief that finally, the Arroyo administration is doing something to help secure the telecommunication towers of Globe Telecom.

However, reading the report in its entirety sparked a lot of curiosity in me. Let me quote the end of the report, "Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said authorities are looking into reports that Globe may have been refusing to pay "revolutionary taxes" to the NPA that is why its towers are being bombed." I got a lot of comments through text as to why only the towers of Globe Telecom are being bombed by the terrorists? Why aren’t the other cell sites threatened as well?

Again, let me reprint the portion of the letter emailed to me about this issue, which we wrote last week "Globe Telecom is known to have refused this "solicitation" from the NPA and because of their "intransigence" they now suffer the wrath of the NPA. But can we blame them? Tell me how to book a multi-million annual tax payment to an illegitimate receiver and get away with it. Or is publicly-listed Globe so naive to fall victim to bonafide extortionists?"

If you ask me, if an investigation is to be conducted, it should focus on finding out whether the other players in the telecoms industry have encountered, or to put it quite bluntly "paid" revolutionary taxes to the NPA, which is why none of their cell sites were attacked, bombed or strafed? Come now, is anyone out there paying revolutionary taxes?

I submit that we’re dealing with conjectures when we say that the cell sites of the other telecom companies were untouched because they paid the NPA, but given the intensity or the "dog-eat-dog" ferocity of the telecom wars, who knows if someone within the those organizations have just taken advantage of such a golden opportunity? By this, I mean that when a competitor’s cell site is down, it means that only the cell sites of the other players in the industry can be used! This is not to mention the huge business losses suffered by the company with a dead cell site.

Hence, there is a need for an investigation, not by the Department of Justice, but perhaps by military intelligence. If the allegations are true that a telecom firm paid the NPA revolutionary taxes in order to protect its cell sites or so that competitors will have their sites blown out by the rebels, then it is time to expose the truth because it means that the money the are giving strengthens the NPA and in a way help kill innocent civilians or soldiers in the field.

Finally, let me reiterate once again that none of the militant organizations and their friends who belong to party list groups in Congress has openly denounced this recent spate of terrorist act done by the NPA. Yet Congress gets bogged down into useless argument on the simple question of "who is a terrorist?" In my book, a terrorist is one who kills or maims innocent people for any cause, legitimate or otherwise. The NPA is one of them!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.