Cash and burn

Just recently, the New People’s Army (NPA) reportedly stepped up their attacks on pineapple and banana plantations in Mindanao, mostly the areas operated by agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

While the attacks caught the attention of some media outfits in Mindanao, the reports hardly moved the Aquino (Part II) administration into action.

Most of the ARBs used to be mere workers in those plantations. They then became owners of the land through the government land reform program, although they continued to work in the plantations under certain deals with multinational companies, such as contract growing or lease back. Those deals secured for the ARBs a ready market for their produce.

According to reports by media outfits in Mindanao, the NPAs burned four “Martignani” spray trucks, an entire warehouse in a packing compound and other unspecified heavy equipment—all in less than a month.

Those attacks reportedly took place in eight different plantations in Bukidnon, Agusan del Norte and South Cotabato—precisely where multinational firms Dole and Del Monte operated.

There seemed to be a thunderous message in those attacks, perhaps directed by the NPA and National Democratic Front, especially to the Aquino (Part II) administration.

For one, the number of attacks by the NPAs in one month already surpassed their attacks on the banana and pineapple plantations in the entire 2015.

Moreover, the intensified attacks by the NPAs happened in the days leading to the 30th anniversary of the Edsa People Power, which the boys of our leader, Benigno Simeon aka BS, tried to play up in their media campaigns against the evils of martial rule under former President Ferdinand Marcos.

It seemed, therefore, that the insurgency problem became worse under this administration than what the boys of our leader BS would want us to believe.

Those poor ARBs that were just trying to make a living suffered losses from those attacks.

It seemed the NPA, as a group, still imposed what for decades has been known to businesses—small and big alike—as the principled sounding “revolutionary tax.”

The government, of course, viewed it as outright extortion.

Anyway, in the countryside like in the banana and pineapple plantations in Mindanao, the NPAs would often terrorize businessmen who would not honor the “tax,” simply by holding some “barbeque parties”—a term reportedly used by one NPA member.

They burned equipment or facilities worth millions of pesos to disrupt the operations of the businesses, thus forcing them to pay up eventually.

Last year, the NPAs reportedly attacked large plantations in Mindanao every month from January to November—as if on schedule.

And they burned expensive heavy equipment, container vans and cargo trucks (loaded with produce) in various parts of Mindanao, such as T’boli and Surallah in South Cotabato; Barobo and Lianga in Surigao del Sur; Quezon in Bukidnon; Maco in Compostela Valley; and Maasim in Sarangani Province.

From what I gathered, the attacks abated sometime in December, perhaps due to the yearly ceasefire between the NPAs and the military.

The stepped-up attacks early this year have sowed fear among the ARBs.

The ARBs reportedly feared the NPA attacks would force the multinationals relocate their operations to other countries, which have actually been dying for a bite of the lucrative fruit markets in Asia and the Middle East.

And so the ARBs appealed, at first, to the NPAs.

A text blast to the ARBs, purportedly coming from the insurgents, read:

“Warm greetings from the freedom fighters. The opportunistic big corporations here in Bukidnon have already felt the presence of the army of the masses. This is not yet enough because the destruction of the environment still continues. We will achieve victory this year. We will continue our attacks until we topple down these capitalists. If you workers will lose your jobs for a short period, we call on you to sacrifice for true unity. We need to shut down these big corporations who have been oppressing us for the longest time. Let us stand for conformity, justice and true reform.”

There—the poor farmers in Mindanao must sacrifice!

In other words, if they would lose their livelihood with the closure of the plantations, seemingly the objective of the insurgents, they just would have no means to feed their families or send their children to school or pay for their medical needs.

Like it or not, the most affected sector of the insurgency in Mindanao was the hundreds of thousands of farm workers in the plantations—not the multinational companies and their executives.

With the renewed NPA attacks early this year, the ARBs reportedly appealed to the Aquino (Part II) administration to do something about them.

Well, the statistics could be downright frightening.

Let us not even talk about the revenues the government would lose with the collapse of the agro-industries in Mindanao, such as property taxes, business permits, VAT and income taxes.

It was just that the banana plantations in Mindanao, for instance, covering about 83,000 hectares, are estimated to employ more than 330,000 individuals—meaning, the plantations support something like 2 million people.

That would be the number of people who would have to sacrifice!

By the way, the insurgents warned the banana plantations against the use of aerial spray planes, threatening to shoot down their aircraft.

From what I gathered, they have actually strafed one plane and advised the pilots of the aircraft to look for other jobs.

That our leader BS would do something about the renewed attacks by the NPAs in Mindanao, could be just be another exercise in wistful thinking.

After all, Mindanao historically accounted for only about 60 percent of the country’s agricultural exports.