Don’t pay campaign fees to NPA, warns military

From the Gulf Today (Oct 12): Don’t pay campaign fees to NPA, warns military

A top military officer on Thursday warned candidates running in the May 2019 mid-term election against paying “campaign fees” to members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA), pointing out that was tantamount to helping them in their “terroristic activities” against the people.

Lieutenant General Danilo Pamonag, the chief of the military’s Southern Luzon Command, aired the warning as the Commission on Elections started accepting certificates of candidacy from those running for the 18,000 positions at stake in the polls.

“Payment of such fees will only allow the rebels to build war materiel that will be used for their terroristic activities against the people,” Pamonag said.

Besides, Pamonag warned: “Giving in and supporting terror organisations is punishable by law. A permit to campaign scheme is a form of extortion, which is illegal.”

The military has confirmed that the collection of the permit to campaign fee has been imposed by communist insurgents to allow candidates, especially those running for local positions to campaign in “rebel-held” areas.

Election observers agreed that support from the insurgents often meant a close victory or loss in a hotly-contested election like those running for mayor.

Such fee, the military said, also forms part of the alleged extortion scheme devised by the insurgents like demanding business establishments particularly mining and bus firms to pay “revolutionary taxes.”

The NPA is the armed component of the Communist Party of the Philippines that has been waging a Maoist-style insurgency against the government for close to 50 years, considered the longest in Asia and the Pacific.

On Thursday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) opened its doors nationwide to accept the certificates of candidacy from candidates running for at least 18,000 positions on the national, regional, provincial and local levels from Oct.11 to 17.

At stake at the national level are 12 positions for senator and for the regional, provincial as well as city and municipal levels are candidates for congressmen, governors, mayors as well as members of town and city councils.

On the eve of the filing of the certificates, James Jimenez, the Comelec spokesman, appealed to the candidates not to turn the occasion into a “circus of the supporters.”

“We don’t want this event to be disorderly and chaotic. However, we cannot control what he aspirants and supporters will do outside our office,” Jimenez pointed out.

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