Thursday, January 05, 2006

Damn If You Do, Damned If You Don't!

Hey listen up, all of you! Companies caught paying illegal taxes to communist insurgents will be charged with rebellion!

The Philippine Information Agency said Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez cautioned firms in the country not to pay so-called "revolutionary taxes" or risk prosecution by the government as accessories or accomplices of the insurgents.

"If they do not want to be charged with rebellion, they have to inform the authorities every time the rebels harass them into paying revolutionary taxes," Gonzalez said.
The New People's Army (NPA) has been collecting illegal taxation from companies across the country and even traders and civilians are not spared, and those who refused to pay are threatened with harm.

Gonzalez explained that by not complaining against the extortion, firms are tolerating the rebels and indirectly supporting them.

But many company executives said they are afraid to complain to the authorities because the rebels would either abduct and kill them or attack their firm.

The NPA is notorious for attacking companies whose owners refused to pay "revolutionary taxes."


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