The leaders of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPM-P/RPA-ABB), a group that split from the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in the 1990s, have begun accusing each other of corruption and gangsterism – and seem headed for a bloody showdown.
BY KARL G. OMBION AND RICHARD PAUYON
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 16, May 27-June 2, 2007
BACOLOD CITY – The leaders of the group that has been branded by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as a “mercenary and bandit group,” have begun accusing each other of corruption and gangsterism – and seem headed for a bloody showdown. Incidentally, this group has also been accused by various village folks and people’s organizations of human rights violation and extortion.
Early this week, local media received a communiqué from the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPM-P/RPA-ABB) announcing that Stephen Paduano (a.k.a Lualhati Carapali), vice-chairman of RPM-P and national commander of RPA-ABB; Veronica Tabara (a.k.a. Inca); and Ariel Sabandar (a.k.a. Suk) had been expelled from the party effective April 18.
The following day, Carlos Magtanggol, RPM-P/RPA-ABB spokesperson, confirmed over local radio stations the said expulsion, which he said was contained in a resolution of a special plenum of the RPM-P Central Committee held April 17-19 in Panay island.
The resolution, signed by acting plenum secretary and RPM-P spokesperson Magtanggol was attested by RPM-P chairman Nilo de la Cruz, stated that the three were stricken off the party membership and were stripped of all their rights, privileges and representations. The resolution also includes their removal from the Joint Enforcement and Monitoring Committee, the joint body formed by the RPM-P/RPA-ABB) and the government which is in charge of monitoring the implementation of their peace agreement.
The three, the resolution further stated, were found guilty of “grave violations undermining party discipline, unity and integrity” such as abuses during the May 14 elections in Negros. They allegedly engaged in corruption, mercenary acts and gangsterism, as well as promoted vested interests. Tabara was particularly charged with finance opportunism involving party funds and peace-related project funds.
“Usurpation of power”
On the same day, Paduano confirmed over radio stations his expulsion but charged De la Cruz of usurping power. He said that their expulsion was bogus, saying “no individuals in the party, except the congress, have the authority to expel any member.”
“In my case, I was elected by the representatives of various regional commanders who are members of the congress to be their national commander and representative to the national leadership; thus the group of Nilo de la Cruz has no right to expel me much more on questionable grounds,” he said.
Paduano said that Nilo de la Cruz and his group had divulged “internal party problems” and depicted them as bad persons to influence the public and media. He also accused De la Cruz and his group of committing numerous abuses and violations of party principles and programs.
In a subsequent press conference, Paduano, Sabandar and Tabara along with a number of “field commanders” led by Victorino Sumulong said that the expulsion order “was illegal and has no basis, and a misrepresentation of the organization.” They slammed De la Cruz for his “usurpation of power and dictatorial style of leadership.”
Paduano charged that it is De La Cruz and his group who are actually facing various charges of corruption, gangsterism and promoting vested interests.
“De la Cruz’s acts are actually a cover-up of their own violations, and a preemption of the upcoming 3rd Congress of the RPM-P where it is already clear that he would be booted from the leadership,” he added.
Paduano also claimed that he has the support of two-thirds of the entire RPM-P/RPA ABB in Negros, Panay, Cebu, Bohol and Mindanao. De la Cruz disputed the claims of Paduano.
“Dictator and kingmaker”
Magtanggol, in an interview with local media, also belied all the claims of Paduano, adding that the latter has turned into a dictator and kingmaker.
He said that they came out with a press release early this week, especially in Negros where Paduano and his clique are based to inform the media and the public that the three are no longer part of their party, and that all their activities since April 18 are no longer sanctioned by the party.
Magtanggol also chided Paduano for claiming he is still in control of the RPA-ABB even after his expulsion. “It is (Paduano’s) own illusion, and shows only that he does not regard democratic processes and collective leadership in the party,” he said.
He clarified that their party has absolute control of the RPA-ABB. “Mahigpit ang command ng liderato ng RPM-P sa hukbo at intact ang buong hukbo sa Luzon, Mindanao, Cebu, at Negros” (The RPM-P leadership has a tight command over the army and the entire army is intact in Luzon, Mindanao, Cebu, and Negros), he said.
He admitted however that there could be some units in Negros Occidental and Oriental that may be loyal to Paduano, but added that “they are only (Paduano’s) clique, or members who still go with him because they want to know more.”
Magtanggol said that their central committee has not made any decision yet on all the firearms in possession of Paduano and his clique, but urged all the RPA-ABB members who are not subject of the disciplinary action not to follow anymore Paduano, Tabara and Sabandar.
He debunked Paduano’s allegations that RPM-P chairman Nilo de la Cruz usurped power, saying that it was not De la Cruz who decided the three’s expulsion. The expulsion, Magtanggol said, was a product of a unanimous decision of a special plenum of the 19-person central committee.
“Ang nag-expel kay (Paduano) ay ang buong central committee na kung saan ay napatunayan nito ang lahat ng kinasangkutang isyu ng paglabag sa rules, conduct and procedures ng partido; ang nag-expel sa kanya ay sarili niyang mga masamang gawain; siya mismo ang nagsunog sa kanyang sarili” (It was the entire central committee that expelled Paduano, after having proven that he violated rules, conduct and procedures of the party; it was his own misdeeds that expelled him, it was he who burned himself), Magtanggol said.
While the party congress is indeed the highest decision-making body of the RPM-P, he clarified that in between party congresses, it is the central committee which acts as the highest decision- and policy-making body of the organization.
Magtanggol also disclosed that Paduano, Tabara and Sabandar were expelled because they committed serious violations of the party’s unity, program, discipline and integrity.
Magtanggol said that Paduano and his clique have long engaged in atrocities, killings and gangsterism.
He also said that they have served as private goons of big planters and big business. “In the last elections, they became campaigners and protectors of Rep. Ignacio ‘Jose Pidal’ Arroyo, and several other politicians and big planters in Negros,” he said.
“The central committee has long been aware of the complaints and charges from the provinces against (Paduano) and his clique, but every time they are discussed (Paduano) would downplay them and instead brand them as propaganda of the CPP-NPA,” he added.
He charged that these acts of Paduano only proved that he has “abandoned the political line of the party,” and has “subverted the party’s class bias for the workers, farmers, urban poor and other exploited classes.”
“(Paduano) is obviously no longer a revolutionary because he no longer fights and advances the class interest of the masses, but acts as the kingmaker, operator of the politicians and trapos (traditional politicians) in exchange for millions of money,” Magtanggol charged.
Magtanggol dismissed allegations that De la Cruz and other leaders were behind the slay try on businessman Go Teng Kok, the slay try of Sanchez, the killing of a businessman Umali, the burning of ABS-CBN van as Paduano’s “concoctions to cover up his own crimes.”
Corruption
Magtanggol also said that Tabara and Sabandar were expelled because of finance opportunism. He cited, in particular, cases of corruption involving the “stashing” of some P10 million ($216,872.70 based on a $1:P46.11 exchange rate as of May 25) in project funds from peace agreement intended for some communities, including the support of P25,000 ($542.18) each for the RPM-P’s political prisoners, and the P250,000 ($5,421.82) in projects for two RPM-P beneficiary villages in Mindanao; “diversion and juggling” of party funds; and a few other activities involving funds without collective discussion and approval by party leadership.
Shady history
The RPM-P and its military arm RPA-ABB were formed sometime in the early 1990s following the split of their key leaders led by Arturo Tabara and De la Cruz from the CPP-NPA. Earlier reports show that the reason for their split was their refusal to uphold the call of the CPP to “rectify the party’s gross errors in urban insurrectionism and military adventurism, and reaffirm its basic principles, strategy and programs.”
In 1993, the Negros CPP Regional Committee, then under the Party’s Visayas Commission headed by Tabara, declared its autonomy from the central leadership.
The following year, Tabara along with other members of his faction were arrested by the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) under Maj. Pedro Cabuay, in an apartment in Bacolod. Tabara and the others were subsequently released shortly under mysterious circumstances.
Sometime between 1997 and 1998, Tabara and De la Cruz formed the RPM-P with the RPA-ABB as its armed unit. Others who had joined them, like Noel Etabag and a certain Geanga, left the new formation because of disputes over alleged racket money, and formed their own party, the Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (PMP or Filipino Workers’ Party).
Since then, there have been frequent media reports in Negros about joint military operations by the RPM-P/RPA-ABB and military and police against the CPP-NPA, particularly in the hinterland villages of Sipalay-Hinobaan, Cauayan-Ilog-Candoni-Kabankalan, Isabela-Binalbagan in southern Negros, Canlaon-Guihulnga-Don Salvador Bendicto in central Negros, Silay-Talisay-EB Magalona, Cadiz-Sagay-Escalante-Toboso in north Negros, and Sta.Catalina-Bayawan in Negros Oriental.
Fr. Frank Fernandez , leader of the CPP-NPA-NDF (National Democratic Front) in Negros, said in 2003 that Tabara was also hired as a security adviser of magnate Eduardo Danding Cojuangco Jr.. Tabara was allegedly responsible for the sell-out of RPA-ABB by serving as a private army of Cojuangco in the latter’s land ownership expansion in the cities of Canlaon, Kabankalan, Sipalay, Bago and La Carlota, and in the towns of Don Salvador Benedicto and La Castellana, all in Negros.
In May 2002, Fernandez said, Tabara and Lualhati directed RPA-ABB members in the raid of the municipal treasurer’s office in Sta. Catalina town in Negros Oriental, where they reportedly stashed away P220,000 ($4,263.66 based on the year’s average exchange rate of $1:P51.60). The RPA-ABB commandos reportedly killed Lito Dagat, Virgie Edreal, Dondon Dinsay and another, all employees of the Municipality of Sta. Catalina.
The RPM-P/RPA-ABB was also linked to a family that was reportedly engaged in illegal logging in Don Salvador Benedicto, Negros Occidental.
In the May 2004 elections, the RPM-P/RPA-ABB made news for allegedly engaging in extortion activities in which it amassed millions of pesos using the name and logo of the CPP-NPA-NDF, Fernandez also said.
Paramilitary unit
In January 2002, then Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to recognize the RPM-P/RPA-ABB as a paramilitary unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
That the Tabara group was made into a paramilitary unit has been attributed by some political observers to what they describe as the group’s record of capitulation. Only a year after President Joseph Estrada started negotiations with the Tabara group in 1999, a peace agreement was signed. On Dec. 6, 2000, Estrada’s Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara, along with Cojuangco as “peace intervener,” signed a peace pact with Tabara and De la Cruz in Quezon City.
Long overdue
A source from the NPA said that the reported squabbles in the leadership of the RPM-P/RPA ABB are inevitable and would likely result in another major split in their group.
“The bandit group had already several splits during their formative years; their recent squabble is expected and consequential in a group that has from the start engaged and promoted mercenary acts, banditry, corruption, gangsterism, and anti-people activities; they are splitting up over spoils of their corrupt practices and will eventually cut each other’s throats.”
The NPA source said that neither of the contending factions in the RPM-P/RPA-ABB is guilt-free because the group had turned into an “anti-people and mercenary group,” and a paramilitary arm of the army from the time it split from the movement.
The source also said that several people’s organizations, non-government organizations, peace groups and foreign observer institutions have already filed numerous complaints of RPA-ABB abuses and killings including the abduction of militant leaders, not only in Negros but in other areas where the group operates.
Meanwhile, the Negros chapter of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) in a statement released to local media observed that the recent splits within RPA-ABB were due to “infighting over corruption and dirty money.”
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“The RPA-ABB leadership is “fighting for a share of the extortion booty and dirty money they got from being armed goons of the despotic landlords or politicians,” Bayan-Negros Secretary-General Felipe Gelle said. “It is a shameful act that deserves condemnation from the people.”
"Everyone knows that Carapali Lualhati now lives in riches from the extortion money he receives, while his soldiers wallow in poverty,” Gelle said.
He said that it is public knowledge that the RPA-ABB has extorted money from companies like the Charles Mosser wood plantation in Himamaylan, the Maricalum Mining Company, Philex Gold Mining, and the proposed ilang-ilang plantation in Ilog.
The RPA-ABB, according to him, was said to be responsible for harassing the residents of Brgys. Tanza and EB Magalona into not voting for defeated mayoral candidate Alfonso Gamboa. The group was paid to do this, he said.
“We cannot forget also how they become assassins to kill innocent civilians and organizers of the various people’s organizations affiliated with the NFSW-FGT (National Federation of Sugar Workers-Food and General Trades), KMP (Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas or Philippine Peasant Movement),and Task Force Mapalad on orders of either the military or the sugar barons who use them,” Gelle said. Bulatlat