Thursday, October 12, 2006
Maxey: Making hay
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
THE continuing series of depredations made by the New People's Army (NPA) against firms, which have refused to pay so-called revolutionary taxes has a lot of people wondering "what gives?"
Only lately, the NPA raided the site of a new international airport undergoing construction in Silay City in Negros Occidental, resulting in damaged equipment valued at P30 million.
Then, in another part of the country, NPA elements torched a Globe Telecom tower in Barangay Badas, Mati, Davao Oriental, last Sunday morning. A couple of weeks back, another NPA group burned down a packing plant and cut down banana plants in Paquibato district, Davao City.
In all three instances, just the latest of similar attacks elsewhere, the reason for the rampage was the same: failure to pay protection money, a euphemism for extortion, what else?
A lot of people who should know better have expressed surprise why communist rebels have been engaged in such attacks that only tend to enrage a lot of their fellowmen who lose their jobs whenever such attacks hurt the companies they are employed in.
If the NPA is really the army of the Filipino people, why does it make life difficult for them? Like ordering them to get down from the buses they are passengers of so the rebels could douse the vehicles with gasoline, put them to the torch and leave the passengers stranded in the middle of nowhere.
This way of proving to the world that the NPAs is very much alive in the service of the Filipino people, but at the same time making life miserable for them by setting back development and the economy through such depredations may seem irrational at first glance.
But there could be reason in their madness. After nearly four decades of trying to topple the government -- "Ibagsak US-Marcos! Ibagsak US-Aquino! Ibagsak US-Ramos! Ibagsak US-Estrada! Ibagsak US-Macapagal!" Remember? -- they're still out there in the boondocks because they have failed to rally majority of the Filipino people to their cause. It is that simple.
So, if the people refuse to join the struggle, why bother? Anyway, there is always the revolutionary taxes in the millions of pesos to be exacted from the those who are too scared to refuse to come across. May as well make hay while the making is good. Who cares about the people anyway?
Yeah, revolution, anyone?
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (October 12, 2006 issue)
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