THE New People’s Army (NPA) has extorted over P5 billion worth of revolutionary taxes from 2015 to 2017, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo said.
“According to available records, the NPA through their revolutionary taxation which is a euphemism for large-scale extortion has amassed an estimated 5.315 billions of pesos from the period 2015 to 2017,” he said.
“Therefore, the NPA crippled agricultural businesses, denied employment and livelihood to the people, drove away investors and stunted economic growth,” he added.
Arevalo, however, vowed that the government will beef up its operations in order to eliminate the terrorist NPA “for the country to continue progressing.”
He said it is part of the proposed creation of the anti-communist task force in order to counter the NPA’s another alleged tactic, which is the “political struggle” and to facilitate the peaceful surrender of the NPA members who wanted to mend their ways.
Arevalo said the proposed anti-communist task force does not seek to obtain additional budget for the AFP or for the military to cause burden to the people, as its primary purpose is to integrate and to harmonize all efforts of government agencies that are determined to solve the lingering issues that drive armed conflict.
“For the AFP, the formula is simple, for national prosperity to be achieved there must be security, plus good governance, plus development, equals peaceful and progressive nation,” he said.
“In this framework, the AFP advances and recognizes the fact that defeating a 50-year-old menace that is the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines)-NPA-NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) cannot be achieved by military solution alone. The AFP is aware that it would require the participation of the whole of government with its line agencies performing their core functions by bringing goods and services to the under privileged and vulnerable sectors especially those at the grassroots level,” he added. (SunStar Philippines)