Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Village chief dares NPA to prove raps By Jeffrey M. Tupas Correspondent
THE village chief of Mt. Diwalwal in Monkayo, Compostela Valley has taken a month-long leave of absence starting Monday as he challenged the New People's Army (NPA) to investigate if he "sold out Diwalwal to multinational mining corporations."
Roel Agustin II, spokesperson of the NPA's Front Committee 20-Conrado Heredia Command, alleged that Mt. Diwalwal village chief Franco Tito is now the salesperson of controversial ZTE firm of China and other foreign mining companies as he became the spokesperson of the capitalists.
"Tito has been exposed as a shameless mouthpiece of the capitalists, most importantly as he pushed for the entry of the ZTE amid the anomalous agreement it signed with the corrupt Arroyo government. This is a glaring sellout of the country's integrity and sovereignty to foreign plunderers," Agustin said in a statement.
Tito, in a telephone interview, however, said there is no truth to the allegation of the NPA.
He said that if the NPA will find out that his bias is now on the foreign miners who are interested to enter Diwalwal, then he would be willing to be executed for the same reason.
"Nabayran na daw ko? Dili kana tinuod. Imbestigahe ko ninyo. Ug mapamatud-an ninyo, tarala ko ninyo (I have been bought they said but that's not true. They can investigate and if this is true, they can execute me if they want)," Tito said.
The Diwalwal Barangay Council passed a resolution recently to condemn the NPA's "unprovoked attacks and harassments in the mining area" following the raid conducted by the communist guerrillas in two mining tunnels last week.
Barangay Resolution 27 stated that the attacks of the NPA "do not help mitigate the already worsening economic misery of the people (who are) making decent livelihood to cope with the economic condition."
Members of the Barangay Council came up with the resolution, Tito said, because the NPA have already targeted civilians.
But Agustin said the economic condition of the people in Diwalwal is obviously brought by the control of a few people and their cohorts -- "the capitalists and the mercenary Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)."
Tito's real color, Agustin said, was exposed when he allowed himself to be the number one worker of the AFP whose interest is not to protect the security of the people but to facilitate the entry of companies like ZTE.
"That he (Tito) is against ZTE will remain to be nothing but empty words because he has been allowing himself to be used by the military and the government whose only desire is to allow foreign mining companies to dominate over Diwalwal," Agustin said.
