Police arrest 4 leftist terrorist thieves

Four Marxist guerrillas who were in the middle of an extortion operation have been arrested near Manilla. Police found an extortion letter in possession of the cell of the New People’s Army. The group may have been targeting the phone service company Globe Telecom.

The concept of “revolutionary taxation”—shaking down capitalists to fund revolutionary activities—is inspired by the writings of Marx, Engels, and Emile de Girardin.

From Inquirer Southern Luzon:

4 ‘revo tax’ collectors held in Cavite

By: Delfin T. Mallari Jr.

LUCENA CITY—Four suspected “revolutionary tax” collectors of the New People’s Army (NPA) were arrested by policemen in General Trias town in Cavite province on Monday, police said on Tuesday.

The four suspects were held after a brief chase in Barangay Javalera of the town around 12:30 a.m., according to the report released on Tuesday by the Cavite Provincial Police Office.

Insp. Artemio Cinco, head of of the General Trias police intelligence unit, said in a separate phone interview Tuesday that the suspects were revolutionary tax, or “revo tax,” collectors in the province.

“Based on our initial investigation they are on a revo tax collection mission,” Cinco said in a phone interview.

The Cavite police report identified the four as George Bruce, 33, from Lemery, Batangas province; Jose Nayve, 53, of GMA, Cavite; Romel Nuñez, 30, of Dasmariñas City, Cavite; and Armando Matres, 38, of Lipa City, Batangas.

The identities were provided by the suspects themselves, according to PO2 Christian Neil Cuevas, the case officer.

The report said PO1 Jonathan Dinglasan, a town policeman, happened to be nearby when one of the suspects, using an improvised explosive device, blew up a manhole cover of the Globe Telecom communication cables along Barangay Javalera.

After the bombing, the suspects escaped aboard a Nissan Urvan van (ZFD 262) but they were chased by Dinglasan who was then on his way home driving a private vehicle. While giving chase, Dinglasan informed the police community precinct in nearby Barangay Manggahan, through his mobile phone, of the incident.

The responding policemen blocked the road that forced the suspects to alight from the van and scamper toward a grassy area where they were eventually cornered by the lawmen.

When lawmen searched the van, they found a .45 cal. pistol, 106 live ammunition and four magazines; a 9mm pistol with 17 bullets and one magazine; two pieces of blasting caps, one detonator switch and manual, four energizer batteries and cable wires; eight units of mobile phones; one “extortion” letter addressed to an “Aling Adeling” with the letterhead “Bagong Hukbong Bayan” and other documents that police described as “subversive”…

MILF denies killing terrorist for reward money

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) purportedly whacked a fellow terrorist to collect the $1 million bounty offered on his head. The MILF denies it, but whoever said there’s honor among thieves? Not a bad idea actually. If you can get rid of a rival terror kingpin and enrich yourself in the process, it’s easy to understand why some terrorist groups would consider doing something like this. If I were one of the terrorists listed in the U.S. Rewards for Justice program, I’d be keeping one eye open for any “colleagues” who might want to capitalize on my death.

From ABS-CBN News on May 12:

Mayor urges joint venture between investors and armed Marxist guerrillas

Rodrigo Duterte, mayor of the third largest city in the Philippines, is urging the Communist rebels to lease or sell 50,000 to 100,000 hectares of land to a group of Malaysian and Thai investors to use for a palm oil plantation.

According to the Philippine military, Marxist violence in that country led to the deaths of 3,000 people between 2001 and 2009. Yet Mayor Duterte thinks that local rebels in his city can be happily bought off with rents paid by foreign investors.

This is the same mayor who let it slip that he himself has paid revolutionary taxes to these insurgents (a common terrorist financing tactic), and he encouraged corporations to do the same. Just what kind of investors are these who would be willing to make such deals? One suspects that corruption between Duterte and this unnamed group of investors is afoot; backscratching is going. The only good news is that the Communist terrorists themselves don’t seem too interested Duterte’s corrupt deal.

It should be noted that the tendency of businessmen to cave into the demands of terrorists and pay them money is how ISIS rebuilt its capital before beginning to sweep down the Iraqi countryside.

From Davao Today in June:

Duterte urges rebels to engage in palm oil “joint venture” with Malaysian, Thai company

By JOHN RIZLE L. SALIGUMBA

June 13 2014

DAVAO CITY — Mayor Rodrigo Duterte urged New People’s Army guerillas to “bury your guns, or hang it on a tree” and engage into a joint business venture with a Malaysian and Thai entity that is looking for a 100,000-hectare area to plant oil palm and sesame seeds plantation.

With Paquibato District a known “stronghold” of the NPA in northern Davao City, Duterte said a plantation in their mid would be solely offered to the guerrillas to grab the opportunity.

“Wa ko mangayo nga ang NPA isurrender ilang armas, tagoan lang nila unya akoy mopagador, sabot mo kung pila ilang pangayuon sa yuta. Kay ilang paliton ang palm oil unya naay trabaho. (I do not ask the NPA to surrender their arms; they just have to hide it. You [NPA] should talk [to investors] how much [rent] you want for the land. They [investors] will buy it and provide jobs),” he said.

Duterte said if the NPA agreed, he guarantees to talk with President Benigno Simeon Aquino III and the Armed Forces of the Philippines about “closing” Paquibato.

“Inyo na, kamo diri ug mga NPA,” said Duterte during the 116^th Philippine Independence Day commemoration program he attended in Barangay Paquibato Proper, Paquibato District here.

Duterte was talking about his proposal several times since May this year but it was only lately that he gave the nationalities of the supposed investors. The size of the supposed plantation range from 50,000 to 100,000 hectares, which are figures given by Duterte himself in interviews with the media.

The NPA has not issued any statement yet on Duterte’s offer but the guerrillas have spoken against oil palm plantations in several statements.

The Communist Party of the Philippines refers to the NPA as “‘the tax enforcement agency of the people’s revolutionary government’ as it collects ‘revolutionary taxes’—especially from foreign-owned enterprises—in the regions where it operates.”

Philippine jihad relies on Saudi zakat

The terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf Group relies mostly on kidnapping for ransom for its revenues. ASG also collects money from extortion and from the collection of zakat according to a March 2014 report from Thomson Reuters. The key point of origin of the zakat for the jihadist group is Saudi Arabia. An excerpt from the report follows:

…The ASG has also maintained the collection of Zakat, one of its traditional sources of funding, though not as profitable as its criminal activities. Zakat, which prescribes Muslims to donate 2.5% of their net revenue to charity, is legitimate under Shariah law. The ASG which claims to struggle for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in Mindanao, benefits from Zakat collected locally and abroad. Locals and those abroad who believe that militant groups are in pursuit of jihad donate substantially to support their operations and upkeep. Some donors however, are not aware that their donations end up in the treasury of militant groups.

Crucial to the collection of Zakat in the Middle East are a small number of sympathetic Filipino workers who help source donors and channel funds to the militant groups through the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) remittance system. The Philippines is one of the major exporters of labor to Saudi Arabia with more than a million Filipino workers in that country. Annual remittances amounting to more than a billion pesos have literally kept the Philippine economy afloat. Lack of regulations or monitoring of these remittances allows the flow of funds from supporters abroad to militant groups like the ASG. The ASG has not established a stable support group in any other country except for Saudi Arabia. They depend only on a few core supporters, mostly relatives and friends, both locally and abroad. In the past they collected donations during Friday congregational prayers and used the proceeds for the procurement of ammunition, medicines, and military supplies. It is estimated that from 1992 to 2007, the ASG collected almost ₱20 million from Zakat.

Propaganda is critical for the continuity of Zakat. There is no recent evidence that the ASG is publicly engaged in propaganda which suggests less reliance in Zakat. Previously, the ASG organized lectures and seminars to encourage people to take part in jihad by sharing their wealth through Zakat. The ASG is also known to compile video footages of militant training and actual combat operations. In October 2007, the ASG had appealed for funds and recruits on You Tube by featuring a video of two slain ASG leaders…

Philippines: Marxist rebels make millions from corporate shakedowns

The Communist guerrillas of the New People’s Army in the Philippines is still hard at work threatening corporations to pay illegal revolutionary taxes.  And these aren’t just any old corporations—these are companies that have been awarded contracts by the government of the Philippines.  In other words, a portion of Philippine tax dollars that goes to pay government contractors are essentially being siphoned off to enrich the very enemies of that the Philippine military is at war with.  In Mindoro alone, the NPA has netted 100 million Philippine pesos ($2.2 million USD).

Remember, extortion against companies and businessmen is the same phenomenon that once made ETA a powerful force in Spain, and keeps the Taliban in Pakistan afloat today.  See prior Money Jihad coverage of the use of revolutionary taxes to fund terrorism here.

Sooner or later, the payers run out of money or get sick of paying, and that’s when the terrorists ratchet up the violence even further against them.  It’s an extremely dangerous cycle that’s difficult to break.

Read all about it:

NPA gets P100M in ‘revolutionary tax’

Published : Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Written by : Paul M. Gutierrez

“Almost all” private contractors who bagged government contracts in the island province of Mindoro continue to negotiate with the communist New People’s Army (NPA) for their unhampered operations in exchange for the rebels’ so-called “revolutionary tax.”

Brig. Gen. Bobby Calleja, chief of the 203rd Brigade, made the disclosure in a talk with People’s Tonight.

Calleja said recent “subversive documents” they recovered “listed” the names of contractors who are allegedly negotiating with the rebels for the payment.

Specifically, Calleja referred to a “Triple A” (AAA) contractor from Pampanga, who has bagged a major road project in Oriental Mindoro worth almost P1 billion.

At 2 percent of the contract, Calleja said the rebels would easily gain P20 million, which should give the guerillas enough resources to finance their armed struggle against the government at least for the entire Region 4-B (Mimaropa). This armed struggle would enter its 45th year on March 29, the founding date of the NPA.

Overall, the official said the NPA in Mindoro continues to rake in some P100 million each year from their enforced taxation of business establishments and contractors.

The Philippine Army, together with the Philippine National Police, is now hard pressed to stop what they described as the “banditry” and “terroristic activities” of the NPA in Mindoro.

Only last January 24, the guerillas staged a daring ambush in the tourist haven of Puerto Galera, resulting  in the wounding of three soldiers.

Three days before, the group burned down the heavy equipment being used in a road project in the area.

In two incidents last year, on September 7 and November 7, the NPA also burned down the heavy equipment being used for their projects by Jomerias International Corporation and China-Geo Construction, respectively, also for allegedly not heeding their demand for revolutionary tax.

To partly remedy the situation, Calleja said he is calling on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other concerned executive officials to “ban” contractors negotiating with the NPA.

Marxists rebels blackmail Coca-Cola plant

The communist guerrillas of the New People’s Army in the Philippines sent letters in late November to major industrial firms in a province of Mindanao demanding that they pay 5 million pesos in revolutionary taxes to the NPA.  Among the extortion targets is a new Coca-Cola plant in Misamis Oriental, one of the most modern bottling facilities in the world.

The demands put the firms in a delicate position.  Multinational corporations with a presence in the Philippines have previously been violently attacked by NPA fighters for nonpayment of revolutionary taxes.  The mayor of a major Philippine city has even encouraged companies to go ahead and pay the taxes.  But, at least elsewhere in the world, multinationals that have gone ahead and met the financial demands of rebels, such as Chiquita in Colombia, have faced prosecution in courts of law and of public opinion for funding terrorism.

Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc. and the other firms that have been targeted should refuse to make the payments.  A local police chief, Rogelio Labor, says the companies “have nothing to fear,” because of the presence of the Philippine Army’s 58th Brigade in the region.  That had better be true, or else these businesses would be well-advised to ramp up their own onsite security measures, or just do business elsewhere.

Filipino mayor advises paying off terrorists

Rodrigo Duterte, the mayor of Davao City in the Philippines, says that the solution for dealing with extortion threats and “revolutionary taxes” demanded by Marxist and Islamist guerrillas against businesses in the southern Philippines is to pay up.

The stunning advice from the mayor of the third biggest city in the Philippines came during his address at the Davao Trade Expo 2013 on October 17.

Duterte himself has previously been quoted as saying that he’s paid revolutionary taxes personally.

Duterte suggested that the corporations in the region simply factor in the payments to insurgents as part of their costs of doing business.

This woefully misguided approach would only end up increasing the money available to militants to buy more weapons and carry out more attacks.  (This is the same phenomenon that is financing the Pakistani Taliban in Islamabad, Karachi, and Rawalpindi.)  Over time, a strategy of pay-offs would also drive up the amount of revolutionary taxes demanded, eventually draining and discouraging corporations from doing business in the region at all.

Let us hope that Duterte’s ideas do not take hold, and that he advances no higher in Philippine politics.

From Davao Today on Oct. 22, 2013:

NPA taxation a reality, just pay them – Duterte

By DAVAO TODAY

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte addresses participants of the Davao Trade Expo 2013. (davaotoday.com photo by Medel V. Hernani)

City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had this advice to agri-business players who might be asked for ‘revolutionary taxes’ by the New People’s Army: just pay them.

The mayor raised this point, along with other concerns on peace and order, in his address during the opening day of the Davao Trade Expo 2013 last Thursday at the SMX Convention Center.

“It’s a fundamental question for business: is it good to do business in the mountains? Do we give in to them?” the mayor asked.

He said as mayor of a city in Mindanao dealing with “revolutionary” and “ideological” groups such as the Communist Party of the Philippines and Moro revolutionary groups, the way to deal with them is to talk to them.

“It’s a matter others want to avoid. But it’s a reality that has to be talked openly, since the NPA is more active now in Region 11, notwithstanding the statements from the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines),” Duterte said.

December last year, Duterte drew flak when his pronouncement during a visit at the Communist Party of the Philippines quoted him as saying that he pays revolutionary tax. A youtube video later circulated accusing him of giving P125 million as annual revolutionary taxes.

He clarified that he attended the CPP anniversary at a Typhoon Pablo-affected area where he gave some amount for the typhoon victims; the funds were sourced out from private donors. He said he merely kidded that the funds were the taxes that he would pay to NPAs, but because there was no barangay captain around to receive the donation, he coursed it through local NPA leaders.

In Thursday’s trade expo, Duterte said, “I can talk, but I can’t talk them out of their ideology. You have to realize the Communist Party is entering its 45th year here. You have to admit there’s been historical injustice committed on the people.”

Duterte said the national government should deal with the revolutionary groups by talking peace.

“Crimes I can deal with it. But with the revolutionary (groups), I give it to the (national) government, but here, I advised government not to make arrests of revolutionaries” he said.

As to the NPAs asking taxes he said “I cannot put it to a stop. So factor that in your investments. If you pay to the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), you prepare also for the NPA.” Some participants giggled and smiled on this remark.

Duterte went on and explained that the NPAs are open to discuss terms.

“You give credit to these revolutionaries, you can exchange words and deal with them,” he said, citing experience that the NPA could be negotiated in the release of captured government soldiers and police.

The mayor added his account when the NPA apologized for the grenade attack in a gym in Paquibato district that injured civilians and paid 5,000 pesos for all the victims.

“When they informed me they will pay 5,000 pesos, I said ‘good’. When I asked where they will get the money, they said they will get it from banana planters,” Duterte quipped…

The money man behind Ramzi Yousef’s terror

Looking back at the financing the Bojinka plot

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing killed six people—a disappointment in the perspective of bombing mastermind Ramzi Yousef.  He sought something grander and more devastating, but to pull it off he’d need more money.

The 2006 television miniseries “The Path to 9/11,” (one of the best films ever depicting terror finance methods) dramatized this historical development by showing Yousef meeting with his uncle and future 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad.  In the scene below, KSM says he may be able to obtain financing for Yousef’s next attack—a cluster of onboard airplane explosions that would become known as the “Bojinka plot”— with help from “a wealthy Saudi,” Osama bin Laden.

Bojinka was foiled after the night of Jan. 6, 1995, when a chemical fire in Yousef’s apartment bomb lab 19 years ago today caught the attention of Philippine authorities.  But the audacity of the plan, the financial commitment of Osama bin Laden, and the logistical involvement of KSM remained as elements that would evolve into the 9/11 attack itself.

Marxist rebels go bananas, attack fruit company

Left-wing militants have attacked Sumitomo Fruits Corp. (Sumifru) site in the southern Philippines after the business refused to pay the extortion money demanded by the insurgents.  Twenty communist gunmen of the New People’s Army burned six Sumifru trucks and seized equipment from the site.

Financing themselves with revolutionary taxes imposed against corporations and wealthy businessmen is a common tactic of leftist guerrillas including the Kurdish PKK and, until recently, the Basque ETA.  Terrorist groups such as the Taliban and al-Shabaab have employed similar tactics by demanding Islamic taxes from businessmen and shopkeepers within their territory.

A special report from United Press International:

Filipino NPA guerrillas attack Japanese business site

Filipino Communist New Peoples Army guerrillas attacked a Japanese Sumitumo Fruits Co. site in Mindanao.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Aug. 14 (UPI) — Filipino communist New Peoples Army guerrillas attacked a Japanese Sumitumo Fruits Co. site in Mindanao, authorities said.

The Sumitumo facility in Bangbang, a village in Mindanao’s North Cotabato province, has been targeted repeatedly.

The Bernama news agency reported Wednesday local authorities believe the attack could have been instigated by the firm’s refusal to pay the NPA’s “revolutionary” tax, exacted from businesses and politicians as the price for doing business.

The NPA, estimated by the Filipino government to have 4,000 members, is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines and has been battling authorities in Manila and 60 Philippine provinces since 1969.

The geography of the Philippines, which consists of more than 7,000 islands, with the 11 largest making up more than 95 percent of the country’s area, adds to the difficulties of imposing central government control.

Not only do the Philippines suffer from an NPA Communist insurgency, but Muslims militants in Mindanao have been a problem for decades.

Insurgency has a long history in the Philippines.

Islam infiltrated Southeast Asia through traders and Sufis beginning in the 13th century. Unlike its spread in the Middle East, it was a largely peaceful process. This process left the Philippines with approximately 5 percent of its population Muslim, concentrated largely in the southern part of the country.

The NPA’s militancy is not limited to Mindanao…

Government shares wealth with MILF

The central government of the Philippines has brokered a deal with the radical Moro Islamic Liberation Front to split revenues generated in the breakaway southern island of Mindanao.  The MILF (or “Bangsamoro”) will receive 75 percent of tax revenues, 75 percent of mining revenues, and 50 percent of fossil fuel revenues, with the central government retaining the balance.  The “crown jewel” of the agreement is that the MILF will receive their whopping cut through an automatic, annual, haggle-free grant from the central government.

It remains to be seen which taxes, such as zakat, jizya, or kharaj, the MILF may seek to impose on Mindanao residents.  The agreement is reminiscent of a truce between the government of Pakistan and militants in the tribal belt that resulted in the imposition of jizya against Sikhs in that country in 2009.

From the Philippine Star on Tuesday:

MANILA, Philippines – A wealth-sharing deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is advantageous to the country and “will stand the test of legality and constitutionality,” the chief of the government panel negotiating peace with Muslim rebels said yesterday.

In a press briefing at Malacañang, chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said a wealth-sharing scheme approved on Saturday was justified as it would make the envisioned Bangsamoro entity self-sustaining and progressive.

The Bangsamoro is also entitled to automatic appropriation from the central government.

Based on the agreement, the Bangsamoro entity gets 75 percent share in taxes and revenues from natural resources and metallic minerals and 50 percent from energy and other mineral resources.

Ferrer said that of all the provisions in the wealth-sharing annex, “the jewel in the crown” was the provision entitling Bangsamoro to automatic appropriation and regular release of budget.

The allocation will be in the form of an annual “block grant” from the central government similar to the internal revenue allotment (IRA) received by local government units.

“The formula for the automatic appropriation of block grant will be provided in the basic law. Many of us have not focused on this detail because much of the reporting on media have concentrated on the sharing arrangements with regard to natural resources but, as I said, this is the jewel in the crown,” Ferrer said.

At the same time, Ferrer said the agreement provided that revenues collected by the Bangsamoro from additional taxes and their share in government income from natural resources would be deducted from the annual block grants on the fourth year of the operation of the regular Bangsamoro government.

“This provision came from the MILF. It indicated that behind the haggling for more share is the intent to be less and less dependent on the national government,” Ferrer said.

“It indicated that the intention is not to get the ‘lion’s share’ for its own sake but to be able, in the future, to stand tall as a progressive and peaceful region; an equal partner of the central government in an equally peaceful and progressive country,” she said.

“This, indeed, is the true meaning of partnership – a partnership that is not based on dependency and patronage, but on the strength and capacities introduced by both for the benefit of the whole,” she added.

Ferrer said this was a unique provision because there would be automatic appropriation that would spare the region from the constraints of central budgeting process.

“I would like to say that this is a structural difference. This is not just an add-on in terms of additional percentage or whatever but this, basically, redefines the whole structure with regard to the financing of the Bangsamoro government,” Ferrer said…

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