Three more sugarcane planters in Cadiz City have sought the help of the military after they received extortion letters from the New People's Army, demanding from them revolutionary taxes at the rate of P3,000 per hectare, Lt. Col. Felicisimo Budiongan, Task Group North commander, said yesterday.

This was after 18 hectares of sugarcane fields were burned by suspected NPA rebels in Hacienda Santa Ana, Barangay Mabini, Escalante City, Monday, Maj. Nathaniel Villasor of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, said yesterday. The rebels are believed to have torched the fields because the owner of the farm, Reynaldo Bantug, refused to pay revolutionary taxes, Villasor said.

Meanwhile, Budiongan said the three Cadiz sugar planters were told to pay a maximum of P1 million, or P3,000 per hectare, or else their farm equipment will be destroyed, as what happened to the four tractors and a cargo truck of E.B.Magalona Mayor Alfonso Gamboa and Betty Montinola in Brgy. Caduha-an, Cadiz City.

The military said P1 million in revolutionary taxes had been asked from Gamboa.

Budiongan asked victims of rebel extortion activities to cooperate with them, and not to pay the amount being demanded.

Budiongan said pursuit operations were still ongoing as of yesterday against the rebels suspected to be responsible for the burning of Gamboa's farm equipment. Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, provincial police director of Negros Occidental, ordered Chief Inspector Jefferson Descallar to document all atrocities committed by rebels in Cadiz City, and file charges against them in court.*GPB

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