ARMY’S 4th Infantry Division commander Major General Andres Centino today called on stakeholders in two regions to put an end to the communist New People’s Army’ (NPA) extortion scheme.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines needs the support of all stakeholders to put a stop on the extortion schemes made by these terrorist groups (CPP-NPA),” said Centino.
“Stop giving in to the demands of the communist rebels,” Centino said as he urged the business sectors in northern Mindanao and the Caraga region.
On Wednesday, during the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC)-Caraga meeting, Centino said that over P236 million was reportedly generated by the NPA nationwide from their extortion activities.
“This amount of money is more than enough to finance its terrorist activities in their areas,” said Centino.
Centino said that the extortion activities of the communist rebels in two regions from 2019 alone were estimated to be more than P118 million pesos.
“Stakeholders must rely on the security of their company operations to government forces, not on them (NPA rebels),” said Centino.
Centino said that through the effort of the regional task force to end local communist armed conflict, the government is now gaining headway in reducing the CPP-NPA membership, firearms, affected barangays, and issues of exploitations.
“There is a need to stop the extortion of the armed group to prevent them from recruiting and sustaining their forces,” said Centino.
Centino said the military has a list of those who have given in to the extortion demands of the communists.
He said the rebels are “still thriving despite the AFP’s notable success over the years because their extortion scheme was not stopped.”
“To make good with the intent of the President to end the local communist armed conflict within his term, the armed group should be destroyed,” said Centino.
The CPP-NPA members without resources will surely be defeated; they can no longer recruit new members nor conduct atrocities against our people, according to Centino.
Earlier, Army's 402nd Brigade Brig. Gen. Maurito Licudine also confirmed that the NPA and its fronts in Northern Mindanao and Caraga managed to collect a huge amount of money through extortion activities in 2019.
He even said the amount came from mining construction and politicians among others.
“It is time that Caraganons will be free from the bondage of fear that had implanted into communities by these terrorists,” said Licudine.
The RPOC 13 meeting was presided over by Surigao del Sur governor Alexander T. Pimentel via video-teleconferencing and participated by the member agencies and some local chief executives of the Caraga region.
The meeting also disclosed that on June 24, the Army’s 23rd Infantry Battalion was able to seize a total of eight anti-personnel mines, blasting caps, 11 containers of ammonium nitrate, and hundreds of ammunitions at a CPP-NPA depot in Maasin, Esperanza town, Agusan del Sur.
4ID public affairs chief Major Rodulfo Cordero said the dangers posed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) being planted by the NPA near human trails in various Agusan del Norte villages.
“IEDs are lethal and may kill or maim any villager,” said Cordero.
Cordero said that the AFP’s efforts and focus now will be on identifying those individuals and institutions that are providing and supporting this group.
He said they even tackled the salient points of President Rodrigo Duterte's Executive Order No. 70, which institutionalized the "whole-of-nation" approach to end the local communist conflict in the countryside.
“For a long time, the people thought insurgency was the concern of the AFP and the police but everyone must understand that it is a Whole-of-a-Nation Approach and we must get involved and help end this problem,” Cordero said.
He said the traders were now oriented on the NPA’s resource generation scheme, through the use of intimidation and threat.
He said that the NPA even aims to drive away foreign investments as it considers these bad for the economy of the country under the communist ideology.
“This continued extortion has been an essential source of funds to sustain the NPA and its activities over the years,” said Cordero.
Cordero also said as he quoted Maj. Gen. Centino’s statement that everyone must be part of the initiative and let the stakeholders help and support the government in its effort in addressing the resource generation scheme of the communist terrorist group. (Ben Balce)
