COMMUNIST rebels have increased rates they charge to politicians who are seeking support or asking to campaign in areas where the New People’s Army (NPA) has significant presence.
The Army’s 8th Infantry “Storm Troopers” Division operating in Eastern Visayas reported that it intercepted documents indicating that the fees for the “permits to campaign” and “permits to win” (PTC-PTW) being charged by the NPA to all local candidates have increased by as much as 150 percent.
Those seeking congressional seats or running for governor are now being charged P5 million, or P3 million more than what the Armed Forces said the NPA was charging gubernatorial and congressional candidates in 2010.
During that year’s elections, “the NPA issued PTC-PTW cards to candidates in exchange for payment of their ‘Electoral Alliance Fee,’” the Armed Forces said in a statement.
Citing the 8ID report, Col. Arnulfo Marcelo B. Burgos Jr., Armed Forces Public Affairs Office chief, said that “these cards were color-coded according to the price and the office the politician was running. The blue card, worth P2 million up, was being offered gubernatorial and congressional candidates.”
“The yellow, green and red cards, priced between P10,000 and P500,000, were intended for other candidates.”
The 8ID said that for this year’s elections, the NPA is charging candidates running for vice governor P500,000; for provincial board member and mayor, P100,000; for vice mayor, P75,000; and for councilor, P50,000.
“The NPA is still actively pursuing this scheme,” the 8ID said.
The division said the cards bore serial numbers and the signature of the
local NPA leader.
“It is usually during the election season that the NPA exploits the political ambition of certain candidates by vigorously imposing this scheme,” said the Armed Forces.
Burgos said military records show that in 2010, the NPA collected some P25 million through extortion.
However, the National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas said in a statement issued last month that “the alleged price list by the revolutionary movement for PTC-PTW fees ‘is an invention’ by the 8ID.”
“The 8ID is maliciously trying to reduce into a mere financial transaction the otherwise highly significant reality of politics,” the statement said, quoting a spokesman named Santiago Salas.
Salas added that “politicians recognize there are two governments in the country today.”
“In negotiating for electoral access, they thereby accept the authority, territory, and the laws and policies of the people’s democratic government.”
The Armed Forces said the NPA has started sending these “rates” to politicians, specifically those in Northern Luzon and Eastern Visayas.
Burgos added that the Armed Forces “will continue to perform its mandated task in line with the election period by intensifying its security patrols and random checkpoints with the National Police and Commission on Elections.”
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