Paolo to Hugpong bets:  Ditch NPA’s campaign fee demand or be ditched

DAVAO CITY – Former vice mayor and now congressional aspirant Paolo Duterte sternly warned local candidates running under the Hugpong ng Pagbabago – Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod alliance here not give in to the New People’s Army’s  demands for  campaign permit fees.

Duterte, on his social media account, said that Hugpong would junk candidates found to be giving in to the demands of the NPA, which he described as a “terrorist” organization behind “countless of horrendous crimes” against the people.

The communist group is known for requiring candidates to pay a certain amount before they are allowed to campaign in areas under their influence and control.

Duterte, who is running for a congressional seat in this city’s first district, described this as “the NPAs perverted views of democracy.”

“The election ensures that people freely exercise their right to choose their leaders — and the NPA extortion scheme is an absolute travesty of the essence of the election,” he said.

Duterte said paying the NPA (permit-to-campaign fees) would be tantamount to bowing down to their authority and subscribing to their “destructive” ideology.

He said it would also be as good as playing blind to the crimes that the rebel group committed in the past and supporting the “crimes and more acts of terrorism they (would) commit in the future.”

“Paying to the NPA makes candidates NPA terrorists themselves,” Duterte stressed./gsg