Cedula requirement should not be oppressive — Angara

BALER, Aurora — As far as Sen. Edgardo Angara is concerned, there is nothing wrong with requiring people to secure their cedulas (community tax certificates) as long as no oppression is involved.

"(Requiring people to secure cedulas) will increase the revenue of the town offices. However, it is wrong when the practice is oppressive," he said.

Angara, here for the capital town’s founding anniversary celebration yesterday, addressed the locals’ apprehensions after government troops expanded their cedula drive to barangays here and in Ma. Aurora town.

Residents of certain villages in Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Pampanga earlier got a taste of the military’s cedula requirement, triggering a mad rush to secure the document.

Militant groups claimed that soldiers had committed abuses in doing so. But Armed Forces officials dismissed the allegations as mere propaganda of the government’s "enemies."

Aurora Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo admitted that the military has, indeed, required villagers in a number of towns in the province to show their cedulas.

"There are military personnel going to barangays just to see these cedulas," she told reporters.

Angara, however, refused to comment on the political implication of the military’s cedula campaign.

Hundreds of Baler folk rushed to the municipal hall Friday to secure cedulas after getting reports that soldiers had swooped down on households in Ma. Aurora town.

To accommodate the crowd, municipal employees set up tables in a basketball court where activities marking the town’s fiesta were held earlier in the day.

In Ma. Aurora, some 10 kilometers from this capital town, residents, including students as young as 13, have been lining up at the town hall as early as 6 a.m. to secure cedulas.

Mayor Ariel Bitong said they have given out at least 1,000 cedula forms to the different barangays and schools for distribution. Each cedula costs P2 for adults and P1 for students.

Bitong lamented that "martial law" has descended on his town, which hosts the headquarters of the Army’s 48th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Wenceslao, about nine kilometers from the town proper.

The 48th IB, headed by Col. Joselito Kakilala, is under the control of the 7th Infantry Division led by controversial Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.

Bitong said the municipal council will summon Kakilala during its session tomorrow to shed light on the cedula campaign.

In Nueva Vizcaya, the towns of Aritao and Santa Fe are running out of cedula forms due to the huge number of people wanting to secure them.

The two towns are located at the province’s southern boundary with Carranglan town in Nueva Ecija, where the 7th ID is based. — With Manny Galvez, Charlie Lagasca and Jaime Laude