ILOILO City – Three candidates for local posts sought the help of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6). The New People’s Army (NPA) sent them letters asking for money so they could campaign in rebel-influenced areas.
For security reasons, Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director, declined to identify the three candidates but he said the letters came from the NPA’s Southern Front Committee.
The Southern Front Committee operates in the 1st and 2nd districts of Iloilo and portions of Antique.
The candidates showed to Bulalacao the extortion letters. These contained an NPA mobile phone number.
The “permit to campaign fee” that the rebels asked reached as high as P100,000, said the police director.
“We denounce this NPA extortion activity. They are victimizing midterm election candidates. We shall not allow them to continue doing this. The proceeds of their extortion activities will surely be used to procure armaments to kill soldiers, policemen, politicians, businessmen, and innocent civilians,” said Bulalacao.
He ordered PRO-6’s intelligence units and Regional Mobile Forces to coordinate with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to intensify the campaign against the rebels.
Bulalacao also warned candidates not to give in to the extortion demands of the rebels “otherwise they may face possible disqualification for violation of the Revised Penal Code and other provisions of the Omnibus Election Code.”
Giving money to rebels could be interpreted as supporting their cause, said Bulalacao.
“Public office is a public trust. Criminals and their cohorts have no right to public office,” he stressed.
Data from the Philippine Army’s 61 Infantry Battalion showed that of the 105 rebel-threatened barangays in the region, Iloilo province had the most number at 64, followed by Capiz (37), Antique (three), and Aklan (one).
In Iloilo province, the towns of Leon and Calinog had the most number of NPA-threatened villages at 18 and 17, respectively.
On the other hand, the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) classified 12 barangays in the region as “influenced” by the rebels and eight “less influenced.”
Lieutenant Colonel Ericson Rosana, civil military officer of the 3ID, said, “We will not allow communist terrorists to sabotage and destroy our people’s peaceful exercise of their right to suffrage.”
He then warned candidates against paying so-called “permit to campaign” fees.
It is a form of cheating, said Rosana.
Meanwhile, Bulalacao urged the public to “report to us politicians and candidates betraying our country so that this early they may be disqualified from running.”
“We should not support rebels because they are considered criminals and enemies of the state,” he said./PN
