Stop giving to rebels, firms urged

Invoking corporate social responsibility, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) asked private firms to no longer fork out “revolutionary taxes” to New People’s Army rebels to help end the four decades long communist insurgency.

A senior military official, addressing a group of corporate foundations, said corporate social responsibility calls for taking a stand against extortion and threats from rebel groups.

The military said communist rebels threaten and harass those doing business in the countryside until they pay regular amounts to the rebels.

Brigadier General Marlou Salazar, the senior military adviser to the government panels negotiating with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, talked about corporate social responsibility from the military’s point of view before the League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) general membership assembly Friday in Makati City.

“(His) talk also intends to move the members of the corporate group to take a stand against treating rebel groups’ extortion and threats as ‘normal business risks’ which may repudiate the very essence of corporate social responsibility,” the AFP said in a statement.