NPAs extort P100-M from NorCot traders, politicians
Breaking News • 23:45 PM Thu Dec 11, 2014
919
By:
Malu Cadelina Manar
KIDAPAWAN
CITY – The New Peoples’ Army (NPA) in North Cotabato has extorted close to
P100 million from traders, politicians, groups, and individuals since 2013, a
top military official here said.
Lt. Col. Nilo Vinluan, commander of the
57th Infantry Battalion, said that the rebels are collecting monthly
protection money that ranges from P8 million to P11 million from several
establishments and private companies doing business in North Cotabato.
He cited as basis the complaint of the owner
of Jargon Construction, a company doing several road projects in Kidapawan City
and in Magpet, both located in Cotabato’s second congressional district.
The owner told me the rebels have been
extorting them P11 million. And
because they have not given the rebels the money that they extorted, they
torched the heavy equipment owned by Jargon,” said Vinluan.
City Mayor Joseph Evangelista said such
amount could be an equivalent of a percentage the rebels are trying to extort
from any road construction company.
As far as I know, based on intelligence
data, the rebels are extorting 3 to 6 percent from the total project cost,”
said the mayor.
The Jargon company has two major road
concreting projects in Kidapawan City, one of which started in 2013.
The first phase, which amounted to P75
million, covered concreting of road from Barangay Mua-an to Barangay Ginatilan.
The second phase that amounted to P148
million covered concreting of road from Barangay Ginatilan to Barangay
Ilomavis.
The road projects, according to
Evangelista, are located in areas considered as tourism sites.
On Sunday, Jargon’s dump truck and two
mixers located at Barangay Mua-an here were torched by some 20 fully-armed NPA
rebels.
The rebels also seized the shotgun issued
to a member of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team of Barangay Mua-an after
they fired bullets on the equipment.
Not only traders are paying the NPAs ‘revolutionary
taxes’.
Even politicians, known personalities,
are paying the rebels. I have the list
of those politicians who have given the NPAs revolutionary taxes since 2013,”
said Col. Vinluan.
The list was among the documents that
Vinluan’s unit has recovered from a rebel base they raided sometime May this
year in President Roxas town.
Vinluan, however, refused to disclose
names of those politicians ‘for their security and protection.’