Murdered Philippine rebel leader's daughter laid to rest

At least 3,000 people joined the funeral march of the 20-year daughter of New People’s Army rebel leader Leoncio Pitao, also known as Commander Parago, in Davao City in the southern Philippines on Saturday, March 14, 2009. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and former Bayan Muna Representative Joel Virador were also spotted among the huge crowd that paid their last respect. The woman’s family blamed the military for the brutal murder. Her father linked 11 military intelligence agents in the murder. Rebelyn Pitao is cremated. (AKP Images / Keith Bacongco and Ruby Thursday More)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 14, 2009) – Some 3,000 people joined the funeral march Saturday of a murdered teacher, the daughter of one of the Philippines’ top communist rebel leader in Davao City in Mindanao.

Many were chanting anti-government slogan and blaming the military for the brutal murder of Rebelyn Pitao, whose father Leoncio Pitao, also known as Kumander Parago, is on top of the government’s most wanted man.

The woman’s father is chieftain of the NPA’s Pulang Bagani Command, one of the most feared by soldiers in Mindanao.

Pitao’s daughter was found dead March 5, a day after she was abducted in Davao City. Her naked body was found floating in a shallow creek in the village of San Isidro in Davao del Norte’s Carmen town. Her body bore torture marks and was believed raped before she was stabbed in the chest.Hr father tagged 11 military agents as behind the murder, an accusation strongly denied by the authorities.

Communist rebels vowed those involved in the killing, four of them have already been identified as Sergeants Adan Sulao and Ben Tipait of the Armed Forces’ Military Intelligence Group XI and Corporal Alvin Bitang of the Military Intelligence Battalion (MIB) of the Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry Division, and Orly Pedregosa, another intelligence agent.

“These fascist agents are believed to have carried out this dastardly crime in accordance with instructions from higher ups in their desperate campaign to shatter the determination of Commander Parago and his fellow NPA Red fighters in advancing the people’s revolution,” the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said in a statement.

“These suspects should be sought and arrested so they could undergo investigation by duly authorized revolutionary authorities and face criminal charges,” the CPP said.

The CPP also held the highest officials of the Arroyo government and the AFP responsible for the murder of Rebelyn.

“Ultimately, it is Gloria Arroyo and her top fascist henchmen who are to blame for the crimes against Rebelyn Pitao. Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya 2 has long regarded civilians as targets of military operations including killings, abductions, torture and other forms of fascism. This has now been most hideously extended to apply as well to loved ones and relatives of armed revolutionaries the fascists cannot get hold of.”

Oplan Bantay Laya is the government anti-insurgency campaign in the country.

The CPP also dismissed as “empty rhetoric” the pronouncements of President Arroyo and her defense officials that it is investigating the murder of Rebelyn.

“How can the Arroyo and her factotums be sincere in seeking justice for Rebelyn’s murder when they have, in fact, made this inevitable in the strategy, tactics and course of their counter-revolutionary war? By commending, promoting and rewarding her notorious fascist generals, Arroyo has in fact directly encouraged the Armed Forces of the Philippines to engage in such brutal and dastardly crimes,” it said.

”Rebelyn’s murder highlights the Arroyo regime’s innumerable crimes against unarmed civilians who are invariably regarded by the military and its counter-insurgency strategists as combatants in the raging civil war,” the CPP said.

The Army’s 10th Infantry Division said it has already restricted to Bitang and Pedrogosa so they can answer any investigations into the killing of Pitao’s daughter.

The two soldiers, who were former NPA rebels, denied accusations against them, said Capt. Rosa Manuel, a regional army spokeswoman. (Mindanao Examiner)

Abducted daughter of NPA leader brutally killed in Southern Philippines

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 6, 2009) – An abducted daughter of a senior Maoist rebel leader was found brutally murdered in the southern Philippines, where security forces are battling insurgents fighting for a communist state in the restive region.

Rebelyn Pitao was abducted by gunmen on board a van on March 4 in Davao City. The next day, her body was found in a creek in the town of Carmen in Davao del Sur province.

Reports said the body of the 21-year old woman, a teacher by profession, was wearing nothing, but underwear. Her hands were tied and mouth was bound with a packaging tape – she had stabbed wounds in her chest and was believed tortured and raped by her abductors.

The young woman is the daughter of Leoncio Pitao, who is also known as Kumander Parago, leader of a New People’s Army command responsible for the series of attacks on government forces in Mindanao.

Pitao’s family blamed the military for the killing. Military spokesmen in Davao City also ignored phone calls from journalists.

The Promotion of Church People’s Response also blamed the government’s counter-insurgency campaign for Pitao’s murder.

“The Arroyo government’s counter-insurgency plan and policy of state violence against its perceived enemies has taken its most cruel head in the killing of an innocent daughter and civilian. We are aghast with how state elements can go such lengths in its bid to capture its hated enemy, in the person of Ka Parago, and to eventually weaken the revolutionary organization of the New People’s Army,” it said in a statement.

There was no immediate statement from either the NPA or Pitao about the brutal murder of his daughter. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte vowed to seek justice for the killing of the woman.

Government forces are battling NPA rebels in Mindanao the past decades. The NPA is fighting for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country and the killing of Pitao's daughter coincided with the government announcement that it would resume collapsed peace talks with rebels. (Mindanao Examiner)

Photo: Homeowners March In Davao City, Appeal To President Arroyo To Stop Foreclosure

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte speaks before protesting residents who are calling for the moratorium on housing foreclosure in several local housing projects. At least 5,000 homeowners from different subdivisions in Davao City and neighboring towns and cities marched on Wednesday, Feburary 11, 2009 to oppose the transfer of an estimated P13-billion worth of housing loans with the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC) to a private entity known as Balikatan Housing Finance Inc. (BHFI). (AKP Images / Keith Bacongco)

Davao City wins franchise tax case versus Smart Communications

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The city government of Davao represented by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte won its case recently against Smart Communications, Incorporated involving the franchise tax the city had imposed on the telecommunication company, the Philippine News Agency reported Saturday.

The Supreme Court’s 3rd Division has affirmed lower court’s decision denying Smart’s petition asking the court to stop the city government from collecting franchise tax on them since they had already paid taxes to the national government.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura, the High Court favored the city government in imposing local franchise taxes on Smart as it dismissed the Smart’s declaratory relief case.

Smart first questioned the imposition of local franchise taxes by the city government before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) which on July 19, 1992 rendered a decision against the company.
Based on the tax code of Davao, the city imposed a tax on businesses enjoying franchise at a rate of 75 percent of one percent of the gross annual receipts for the preceding calendar year based on the income or receipts realized within the territorial jurisdiction of Davao City.

But Smart argued that its telecenter in the city is exempt from the payment of franchise tax to the city, since the company was exempted from paying such tax pursuant to their legislative franchise.

Smart further contended that Section 137 of RA 7260 or the Local Government Code which the city insisted can only apply to exemptions already existing at the time of its effectivity and not to future exemptions; and the power of the city to impose a franchise tax is subject to statutory limitations such as the “in lieu of all taxes” clause in section 9 of RA 7294, the Smart’s franchise; and the imposition of the franchise tax by the city would amount to a violation of the constitutional provision against impairment of contracts.

But the city government invoked its power granted by the Constitution to local government units to create their own sources of revenue.

Assessing the evidence on record, the lower court ruled against Smart citing the ambiguity of the phrase “in lieu of all taxes” on Smart’s congressional franchise RA 7294.

Citing an earlier SC ruling, the RTC said that tax exemptions are construed in strictissimi juris against the taxpayer and liberally in favor of the taxing authority and, thus, those who assert a tax exemption must justify it with words too plain to be mistaken and too categorical not to be misinterpreted.

The RTC further declared that the city’s power to tax is based not merely on a valid delegation of legislative power but on the direct authority granted to it by the fundamental law.
Aggrieved by the RTC decision, Smart filed a motion for reconsideration but was denied by the trial court on September 26, 2002, thus, Smart elevated the issue to SC since it was a question of law.

But in a decision promulgated on September 16, 2008, the High Court upheld the lower court’s decision.

The SC also said the Smart’s franchise “does not expressly provide what kind of taxes Smart is exempted from. “In is not clear whether the ‘in liue of all taxes’ provision in the franchise of Smart would include exemption from local or national taxation,” the SC said.

“What is clear is that Smart shall pay franchise tax equivalent to three percent of all gross receipts of the businesses transacted under its franchise,” the SC added.

The High Court added that Smart failed to show proof that Congress intended exempt the company from all kinds of franchise taxes except from the three percent stated in its franchise.

“The uncertainty in the ‘in lieu if all taxes” clause in RA 7294 on whether Smart is exempted from both local and national franchise tax must be construed strictly against Smart which claims exemption. Smart has the burden of proving that…. However, Smart failed in this regard,” the SC ruled.

Although the SC decision favored the Davao City, the High Court the city should also based its franchise tax to the local government code which states that the local franchise tax must not exceed 50 percent of 1 percent of the gross annual receipts for the preceding calendar year based on the income on receipt.