The New People’s Army has raked in almost P200 million during the 2016 presidential and 2018 barangay elections but police said they have no solid evidence yet against candidates and incumbent officials who yielded to the communists’ extortion demands.
Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police, said that while they have the names of candidates and incumbent officials who paid the permit-to-campaign fees, all of them are just being monitored.
“Right now, they are just being monitored. We have to get hard evidence for this, these are all just intelligence information,” said Albayalde.
Several weeks ago, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año held a press briefing in Camp Crame, Quezon City to disclose the alleged extortion racket of the communist rebels during elections.
He said a total of 349 candidates paid money to the NPA.
Of the 349, Año said 11 of them are governors, five are vice governors, 10 are provincial board members, 55 are mayors, 21 are vice mayors, and 41 are councilors.
Also in the list are 126 barangay chairmen, 50 barangay councilors, and eight other barangay officials.
Año also disclosed that a total of P195.5 million was accumulated by the CPP-NPA from their various extortion activities nationwide during the 2016 and 2018 polls.
Albayalde admitted that it is difficult to gather pieces of evidence against those who paid the permit-to-campaign fees.
“This is really hard to prove because for all you know, they will also deny this,” said Albayalde. (Aaron Recuenco)
