THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has extracted P1.9 billion from private companies, the bulk of it from the country’s telecommunication (telco) firms, which explains to a large extent the survival of this armed insurgency.

The data was retrieved from memory flash drives found in the quarters of party Chairman Julius Giron — known in inner party circles as Ka Nars — who was killed last March 13 in a Baguio suburb, allegedly by a military intelligence unit supported by local police.