Correspondence reports:
RPA-ABB's corruption further bared

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

In November 2002, Raul Villar alias Ka Drilon, a commander of the gangster RPA-ABB, surrendered to the New People's Army (NPA) in Negros. Two of his men likewise surrendered with him. Drilon gave himself up after finding out that the RPA-ABB leadership had ordered him killed because he had been criticizing its gangster activities.

Drilon is now under the NPA's custody, is currently under investigation and undergoing thorough reeducation and rectification.

Upon his surrender, Drilon issued a statement and public apology for his and his unit's crimes while they were still under the RPA-ABB. He also exposed the RPA-ABB's crimes, particularly in Negros Oriental.

The most prominent among the crimes exposed by Ka Drilon was a bank holdup in Maninihon, Bayawan City, Negros Oriental on May 8, 2002 that he himself led. Drilon said that Rey Mallari, head of the RPA-ABB regional command, ordered the holdup to raise funds for the support of RPA-ABB units, their front organizations and their families. We were ordered to conduct holdups so our families could eat, said Drilon, while the RPA-ABB leaders led lives of luxury.

Four bank employees were killed in that holdup and P213,000 belonging to the municipality of Sta. Catalina was seized. Ka Drilon and his group used for the holdup weapons issued to them by PNP and AFP officials.

Drilon added that RPA-ABB units under the direct leadership of Lualhati Carapali and Rey Mallari also undertook the following criminal and terrorist activities:

• the bombing of the Pandacan oil depot in Manila
• the bombing of the oil depot in Amlan, Negros Oriental
• threatening the Universal Robina Sugar Milling Company in Negros Oriental and extorting millions of pesos from it
• swindling and extorting from known personalities in Negros Oriental. Among them were politicians who were asked a monthly sum purportedly for the support of mass organizations. The money went straight to the RPA-ABB leadership. Landlords were also asked to give either money or parcels of land in exchange for the masses' withdrawal of legitimate demands and complaints against the landlords.
• wheedling money from druglords
• setting up two clandestine groups to conduct extortion, gangsterism and terrorism against the public. It was one of these groups that held up a bank in Bayawan City. The other group is led by a man who goes by the alias "Rendo" and conducts extortion activities in Siaton, Negros Oriental.

Drilon and his companions have expressed complete remorse, condemned the crimes they had been involved in and criticized themselves. They have declared their readiness to submit themselves to any process that would render justice to all of their victims.

At the same time, Ka Drilon has called on his former cohorts who are still inside various RPA-ABB units to renounce gangsterism and hold Carapali and Mallari accountable for all their crimes against the people and fellow RPA-ABB members. He encouraged the latter to immediately bolt the group and resume the correct path of service to the masses and the revolution. Drilon is also actively cooperating in recovering areas and NPA units that have strayed and been used by the counterrevolutionary renegades in Negros Oriental since the early part of the 1990s.

Drilon said that the RPA-ABB leadership, especially Rey Mallari, actively connives with reactionary politicians in Negros. In particular, Mallari and Jake Roxas, another RPA-ABB commander, receive a monthly allowance from Negros Oriental Gov. George Arnaiz's intelligence fund. Aside from this, Mallari also receives P4,000 monthly from the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Worse, Carapali and Mallari also connive with the military and police to capture and summarily execute RPA-ABB members whose involvement in criminal activities has been exposed, especially those who have begun to question their methods. After this, the traitors collect the rewards put up by the military and the regime for the capture of the comrades they had betrayed. This would have been Drilon's fate had he not bolted the RPA-ABB.

The integration of RPA-ABB units into the reactionary military is practically complete. In January, Macapagal-Arroyo issued permits to the RPA-ABB to carry 100 firearms in accordance with the "final peace agreement" signed by the government and RPA-ABB leaders Arturo Tabara and Nilo de la Cruz as far back as February 28, 2002. Through this agreement, Tabara and de la Cruz have completely exposed themselves as paid elements of the reactionary government and military and completely integrated their operations with those of the PNP and AFP against the NPA and the revolutionary movement in Panay and Negros.

07 May 2003
English Edition

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