The Duterte administration is committed to go after private businesses, including large-scale mining companies, that are paying revolutionary taxes to the New People’s Army (NPA) because the money is being used to fund its military operations.
This is why mining firms are told to upscale its security forces to protect their operations from leftist rebels, says Duterte’s chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo in a radio interview, Inquirer reports.
The politician also said he was in talks with a major mining company which had been able to get an authorization from the government to form its own military forces similar to the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit.
Recently, Duterte classified the NPA as a terrorist group along with the Communist Party of the Philippines after peace talks with the government failed.
