President Rodrigo Roa Duterte presides over the National Peace and Order Council (NPOC) Meeting and Joint Armed Forces of the Philippines-Philippine National Police (AFP-PNP) Command Conference at the Heroes Hall in Malacañan Palace on March 31, 2017. REY BANIQUET/Presidential Photo
DAVAO CITY – More than three years ago, then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had advised businessmen to give in to the New People’s Army’s demand for revolutionary tax.
In a speech before delegates of the Davao Trade Expo in October 2013, Duterte said he could not stop the NPA from collecting revolutionary tax.
“So factor that in your investments. If you pay to the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), you prepare also for the NPA,” he told members of the agri-business sector.
But on Sunday, President Duterte demanded an end to revolutionary taxation by the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, as one of his four conditions for the resumption of the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the political and negotiating arm of the CPP.
Duterte set the four conditions as the Philippine government and the NDFP panels met in The Hague, Netherlands, on Sunday for the fourth round of talks but the formal opening was delayed by a day due to unresolved issues.
“There must be no extortion or revolutionary tax,” Duterte insisted.
Duterte also set as condition the signing of a bilateral ceasefire before the resumption of talks.
He said the communists should also not claim any piece of territory anywhere in the country and that the NPA should release all prisoners in its custody.
The fourth round of talks was supposed to start Sunday afternoon (The Netherlands time) but was moved to Monday after the President called the members of the government panel. No one among the government panel
members would divulge the President’s directives.
Mr. Duterte, however, revealed his conditions during a press briefing after he visited wounded soldiers in Cagayan de Oro City on Sunday afternoon. SFM/rga