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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Wenceslao: Arrest of suspected rebels
By Bong O. Wenceslao
As somebody who has seen up close the methodology of the protagonists in Asia’s longest-running communist-led rebellion, I was wary of the reports following the arrest of Gerald Lavadia and Sharon Abangan. After all, both the government and the rebels have propaganda machineries that can put spins on the same event.
I don’t know Lavadia and Abangan and much of the details I have on the circumstances of their arrest come from what reporters have gathered so far. Thus, I wouldn’t make conclusions, although I hope the police and the military did respect the rights of the two. I know how it feels to be arrested and jailed.
In the meantime, here are a few points I would like to raise:
l Revolutionary tax. The rebels’ imposition of revolutionary tax, which government considers as extortion, is dependent, as far as I know, on their relative strength. The imposition of the tax relies on the recognition by firms that an underground “government” with its armed component is capable of “protecting” or “punishing” them.
If the government claim, which is backed by the testimony of personnel of a cement factory in San Fernando, is true, are the rebels not overreaching, thus exposing themselves to government counter-action? Of course, that presupposes that Lavadia and Abangan are what they are being accused of, something their supporters have denied.
l Position. Lavadia is supposedly the secretary of the education and propaganda commission of the Central Visayas Regional Party Committee (simply put, the regional party of the Communist Party of the Philippines). Abangan heads the sparrow unit of the New People’s Army. That should explain the seized guns and a fragmentation grenade.
But I have a problem reconciling a head of an education and propaganda unit collecting the revolutionary tax payment. Shouldn’t it be somebody from the finance section? Or is this a case of multi-tasking? And why send a top-ranking official to do the dirty job? As for armed city partisans (sparrow units), have they been reactivated?
l Fund sharing. Criminal Investigation and Detection Group 7 Chief Jose Jorge Corpuz’s theory: the money extorted will be used to finance an international conference and other activities to disrupt the Asean summit. Or money from the underground will be used to finance a legal activity. But isn’t the opposite usually true: money from legal sources siphoned to the underground?
Anyway, let us continue monitoring the aftermath of the arrest as it unfurls.
(khanwens@yahoo.com/0915-9228651/my blog: cebuano.wordpress.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 6, 2006 issue)
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