Duterte to close mining firms paying revolutionary tax to NPA

November 21, 2017

Presdent Rodrigo Duterte warned on Tuesday he will order the closure of mining companies, which pay "revolutionary tax" to the communist New People's Army.

In an interview in Taguig City, Duterte said heeding to the rebels' extortion activities is tantamount to contributing to their purpose of ousting the government.

"Because everybody knows and that is of --- it’s almost a public knowledge that mining companies are contributing to the taxation of the NPAs thereby giving them also strength, money to buy arms, and bullets and all in their desire to topple down the Republic of the Philippines," he said.

"We have to talk. I have to talk to them. For those who cannot resist. Then you better close (shop). I can always invoke the higher interest of the dangerous tendency rule of capitulating to the pressure of the communists," Duterte said.

One of the conditions the Duterte administration has been asking the Maoist group before to resume peace talks is to stop their extortion in the guise of revolutionary taxes.

In the official development assistance portfolio review years back by the National Economic and Development Authority, one of the reasons cited for the delay in the implementation of the huge infrastructure projects in far-flung areas was burning of equipment by the rebels due to contractors' failure to give in to the extortion activities of the rebels.

Last Saturday, Duterte said he would issue a proclamation declaring the NPA as a terrorist organization after an ambush in Bukidnon resulting to the death of a four-month old infant.

The President said the proclamation has yet to be drafted. Celerina Monte/DMS