Red flag warnings in Southern California

As we begin our Christmas holiday celebrations in this part of the world, Southern California is battling six major fires.

The Sta. Ana winds have worsened the fires that began on Thursday last week. Hard hit areas are Ventura County, Los Angeles and San Diego. The first fire to ignite was the one in Ventura County. It is named the Thomas Fire and it is the largest one. It has burned over 148,000 acres already and is still going on. More than 88,000 residents have evacuated and over 15,000 structures are threatened. In downtown Los Angeles, the Skirball Fire threatened business establishments, schools and residences in the area. In Kagel Canyon, the Creek Fire burned over 15,000 acres of land, forced over 150,000 families to evacuate and destroyed many structures in the area. In Santa Clarita, the Rye Fire damaged around 7,000 acres of land and made 2,000 residents evacuate. In San Diego, the Lilac fire burned around 4,000 acres of land and destroyed over 100 structures. In San Bernardino, the Liberty Fire burned 300 acres of land.

Forest fires are not new to Southern California but like our typhoons, the fires are getting bigger and stronger each year. Climate change has really made a big difference. We need to get our act together and do something about it. Imagine it has already started to snow in Texas, a desert-place? In the Philippines, we never imagined Christmas to be so hot as it is nowadays not to mention the rains.

By the way, US President Trump has already declared a state of emergency for the California wildfires. Let us continue to pray for everyone in Southern California and the many Filipinos who live there.

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Finally, we have a President who has the guts to protect the citizens of this land against the “extortions” of the New People’s Army. Last week he signed a proclamation declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as a terror organization under the Republic Act 10168 or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre filed a petition at a regional trial court to classify the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group, in accordance with the provisions of the Republic Act 9372 or the Human Security Act.

The Bagong Hukbong ng Bayan or the NPA (an armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines) was born in 1969 out of a strong conviction of the youth to bring back the pride of nationalism and patriotism at a time when President Marcos was abusing and exploiting the country. It was a time when people were too scared of Marcos’ antics and the new people’s army would be set to protect the people. Yes, it happened and it came out as a good source of hope to many students who joined the group. In fact, notable people in the government, congress, senate and military were once part of this group. As time went by, the objective of this group was somehow met especially when Marcos fled the country. But the NPA-CPP continued to feel their need of protecting the people from other corrupt men of government including the oligarchs and rich businessmen who squirm the country’s resources. Ironically, when many of these notable and respectable men left the NPA-CPP, the tides shifted and the group became known as “extortionists” and started corrupting the people in their areas becoming goons.

According to the AFP Civil Relations Service, the NPA executes two kinds of extortion: the regular extortion or the Rebolusyonaryong Buwis sa Kaaway na Uri (RBKU) and the Permit-to Campaign (PTC) and Permit-to-Win (PTW) fees during election time.

According to their “modus operandi”, the NPA first identifies, through its local unit, the potential target, then investigates their income for accurate competition of taxes. The main targets are agro-industrial firms, farms, factories in the rural areas, mining companies, bus operators, construction companies undertaking government projects, and would you believe even small businesses such as sari-sari store owners.

How much is the standard rate of taxes? It is six to seven percent of the gross income for logging operators; one to two million pesos for bus companies; for big ranch owners, the annual collection is based on every cow head; for agricultural landowners, collection depends on the number of hectares owned, like 20-25 percent of net income for 151 hectares or more. Payments have to be in 100 or 1,000 peso bills.

Collected fees, according to AFP-CRS are remitted to the NPA’s higher organ. Eighty percent of it is forwarded to the NPA’s National Finance Committee (NFC). The remaining 20% is retained by lower organs. Reports show that the highest collection rate for 2009 came from business establishments with P42.2 million, followed by logging concessionaires with P28.7 million. And what happens to those who refuse to pay and those who fail to pay? They suffer the consequences. They are either attacked or their establishments burned.

In the past few months, the NPA appears to have escalated their attacks apparently in aid of extortion. Banana and pineapple plantations in Mindanao appear to be the favorite targets of NPA extortion activities. On Feb. 5, rebels attacked a banana processing plant in Pantukan, Compostela Valley. After tying up the caretaker of the packing plant, the rebels poured gasoline on the building and burned down the facility; Feb. 25, about 80 rebels attacked a pineapple plantation in Bukidnon. They simultaneously set afire heavy equipment. In another attack, a pineapple harvester was hit by a landmine; March 25, rebels blocked three container vans in Maragusan, Compostela Valley. The fruits carried in the container vans were doused with gasoline and burned; March 26, rebels opened fire at a spray plane in Tagbina, Surigao; March 27, a little past noon, NPA rebels attacked the plantation of Sumifru (Philippines) Corp. in Malaybalay, Bukidnon and burned down equipment and vehicles used by the enterprise; and March 30, rebels attacked the facilities of Dole plantation in Barangay Sinawal, General Santos City. They torched the cold storage and palletizing facilities, a container van and other capital equipment. Last November 24, a policeman was killed while 10 others were wounded following an encounter with suspected communist rebels in Maasin town in Iloilo. This happened two days after suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) attacked the personnel of Sibalom Municipal Police Station who were on board two police cars in the neighboring province Antique. Three police officers were wounded in that ambush.

This continued harassment and extortion activities of the NPA not to mention the killing of innocent people must be stopped. The question is, will the cancellation of peace talks bring about positive results? Will the NPA concede to the conditions of the president? Will the peace talks happen again or will the war go on? At the end of the day, it is still the government’s duty and obligation to address the problems of poverty and social inequality that has brought about this rebellion.