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Thursday, September 07, 2006
Editorials: Dealing with rebel demands
It is easy for government officials to call on establishments not to give in to demands by rebels for payment of so-called revolutionary tax; after all they are not the ones out there in the frontlines.
Unlike, say, governors and mayors that can get 24-hour protection and police and military officials that are trained to defend themselves, business establishments are open targets, or they are more vulnerable to rebel attacks.
Owners can hire blue guards to secure them and the perimeters of their companies, but it is difficult to protect their assets and products that are moved out.
Weighing risks
Surely, they cannot rely solely on the promised protection by the police and military, whose personnel are limited in number and are tied up to concerns bigger than merely protecting business establishments.
Besides, there’s the reality of corruption in government, or of unscrupulous officials in the civilian and military bureaucracy collecting protection money and other “contributions” from concerned businessmen, increasing the outlay for security.
Eventually, pragmatic businessmen will weigh the risks and expenses involved in spurning rebel demands as against giving in, especially if the amount the rebels are collecting is minuscule, which could be usually the case.
More costly
In the case of the San Fernando firm, for example, what is P250,000 and a laptop for a company that counts expenses and earnings by the millions, even billions, of pesos?
Compare that with the fact that while the arrest of Gerard Lavadia and Sharon Abangan may have prevented the rebels from further collecting money from the said firm, this development may have posed an even bigger problem.
The possibility of reprisal has become real, thus the need for the owners to come up with security measures even more complicated than what were in place before the arrest, which could be more costly.
Concrete measures
What this means is that government must go beyond mere calls or even threats just to prevent companies from paying up.
Rather, it should come up with concrete and workable measures that would ease the fears and make businessmen more determined in resisting rebel demands.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 7, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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