CPP/NPA-Southeast Negros: On Gen. Baluyan’s hackneyed diatribe against revolutionary taxation

Propaganda statement posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Website (Oct 3, 2020): On Gen. Baluyan’s hackneyed diatribe against revolutionary taxation

ESTRELLA BANAGBANAG

SPOKESPERSON

NPA-SOUTHEAST NEGROS

RACHELLE MAE PALANG COMMAND)

NEGROS ISLAND REGIONAL OPERATIONAL COMMAND

APOLINARIO GATMAITAN COMMAND

NEW PEOPLE'S ARMY

OCTOBER 03, 2020

The fascist mercenaries of Negros RTF-ELCAC and AFP CentCom have once again stepped up their criminal, anti-people terrorist scheming in a vain attempt to thwart the revolutionary people’s democratic government (PDG) in Negros Oriental in exercising its right and fulfilling its duty of collecting revolutionary taxes.

Last September 29, 2020, 302nd Brigade Commander Brig. General Noel Baluyan met up with Negros Oriental owners and managers of MSMEs in Dumaguete City to dissuade them not to comply with their obligation of paying revolutionary tax.

He prattled about NPA “extortion” through revolutionary taxation and that it’s a crime to defray for such. He further babbled that it is tantamount to supporting the armed struggle, and financing terrorism.

Behind the general’s ostensibly pleading words to businessmen is a thinly-veiled threat that their non-compliance will result in severe consequences, legal or otherwise.

In the words of Negros Oriental Provincial Prosecutor Eugene Salon: “The one who provides the material aid can be prosecuted or considered also as principal to the commission of the crime of the Anti-Terror Law. In the process of prosecuting the person who gives material aid, while in the prosecution stage, the government, law enforcement can already initiate action against his bank account. He can also be subjected to search and seizure. His property can be forfeited or seized if he is found guilty of the crime and his finances will be frozen.”

The anti-people ATA is here employed to intimidate the proprietors of MSMEs in Negros Oriental in the vain hope of deterring the entrepreneurs and tradesmen from providing any kind of material or financial support to the people’s democratic government.

The Rachelle Mae Palang Command – Southeast Negros strongly condemns the enemy’s aforementioned vile trickeries orchestrated by Negros RTF-ELCAC and AFP CentCom, issuing threats of prosecution and seizure of property, and sowing fear among entrepreneurs of Negros Oriental.

The RMPC reminds General Baluyan that as a legitimate belligerent power in the five decade civil war, the people’s democratic government, one of the two existing governments in the Philippines, possesses inherent right to collect taxes.

Hopelessly labelling the PDG as terrorist and criminal, exploiting the deplorable Anti-Terror Act, and bullying the petty and middle bourgeois of Negros Oriental clearly exposes how desperate and futile are the GRP’s attempts at gaining an upper hand in the civil war.

There is nothing unusual or anomalous about revolutionary taxes. It’s the normal function of the people’s democratic government. The respective commands of the NPA are tasked to act as tax enforcement and collection agency.

Revolutionary taxes are levied on business enterprises operating within the jurisdiction of people’s organs of political power and areas of operation of the NPA. It’s a duty imposed for their privilege to do business in the people’s democratic government territory. Also, to ensure that such businesses comply with social and environmental regulations and will not be detrimental to the people.

Thus, payment of revolutionary taxes is not equivalent to supporting the armed struggle, as imagined by Baluyan, but rather the compliance of tax obligations incurred. Moreover, penalizing hard working, honest business people with criminal prosecution and seizure of properties is blatant violation of human rights and is a criminal and terrorist act against the Filipino people. ###

https://cpp.ph/statements/on-gen-baluyans-hackneyed-diatribe-against-revolutionary-taxation/