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MASBATE: A Filipino-French company in the Philippines has been
forced to close half of a rural electrification program after
communist rebels torched its equipment and demanded “revolutionary
taxes,” the company said Friday.
The Paris-Manila Technology Corp. (Pamatec) is
in charge of transporting and installing French government-funded
solar panels and a mini-grid diesel system as part of a rural
electrification project on the central island of Masbate, one of the
poorest provinces in the country.
Pamatec Chief Hubert d’Aboville told Agence
France-Press that he was forced to close the program in the south of
the island after members of the New People’s Army (NPA) attacked
the company’s assets.
“We had received several threatening letters
which I had replied to in a most courteous way,” he said.
“But still they attacked. It is just
extortion. Nothing more,” he said.
He said the project aims to bring cheap
electricity to more than 100,000 poor people living in villages on
the islands of Masbate and Ticao.
“We are now concentrating our efforts to the
north of the main island of Masbate,” d’Aboville said.
The project is worth over one billion pesos and
when finished will provide electricity to 18,000 households in 128
remote villages in Masbate Province.
“I am very disappointed,” d’Aboville said.
“These are people who have nothing and all we are trying to do is
improve their lives just a little bit. But the NPA obviously
doesn’t see that.”
The insurgents raise funds by extorting money
from businesses in rural areas such as mining companies and
electrical and telecom firms. Those companies that refuse to pay
their “revolutionary tax” are subject to NPA attacks.
-- AFP
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