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.com)
