WB: CPP-NPA netted P1.6-billion revolutionary tax in East Mindanao

From the Business Mirror (Nov 16): WB: CPP-NPA netted P1.6-billion revolutionary tax in East Mindanao

A World Bank senior economist said the communist insurgency collected as much as P1.6 billion in revolutionary tax in eastern Mindanao last year.

The estimate was P300 million higher than an earlier estimate disclosed by the International Alert, a London-based private organization helping foreign and domestic companies operate under socially and environmentally acceptable parameters in their host countries, including the Philippines.

Karl Kendrick Chua, senior country economist at the Philippine office of the World Bank, said the report emanated from the Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command. He did not elaborate on the taxation scheme of the National Democratic Front and its main revolutionary organizations. But he said consultations with government agencies like, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of Defense, including guerrillas who have surrendered, would indicate that the communist insurgency “could be addressed on the jobs side.”

“Unlike the Moro insurgency, the [communist insurgency] could be addressed on the economics side,” he said.

Businessman Vicente Lao Jr., president of the Mindanao Business Council, raised the insurgency issue during the board meeting of the World Bank, the Philippine Business for Social Progress and the Mindanao Development Authority on Friday at the Seda Hotel here.

He wanted to inquire if the government has again initiated talks with the National Democratic Font ( NDF), saying that the insurgents’ burning construction equipment and machineries of mining and agriculture companies “may discourage investments and businesses in Mindanao.”

He told the BusinessMirror that he lost P6 million in the guerrilla five attacks on his highway construction projects outside Davao City.

The Davao City-based online news group, Mindanews, said International Alert has appealed to Malacañang to open up new peace negotiations with the NDF, saying that this may contain “economic and human losses.”

It said that its contact organizations in the Philippines estimated the losses to be not less than P1.3 billion in “revolutionary taxes” to communist rebels last year.

The Mindanews quoted its country manager, Francisco J. Lara Jr., as saying that “companies in these provinces are forced to pay millions in revolutionary taxes and have seen many of their facilities and equipment destroyed.”

“Local governments cannot attract investments and tourists that should have boosted the local economy,” he said.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/wb-cpp-npa-netted-p1-6-billion-revolutionary-tax-in-east-mindanao/