NPA rebs torch five container vans, ambush cops

Communist rebels have set on fire to five container vans of a banana plantation in Compostela Valley province, the military said yesterday.

Major Gen. Carlos Holganza, commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said the incident took place around 8:30 a.m. yesterday in Barangay Camanlangan, New Bataan town, Compostela Valley province.

Holganza said the five container vans owned by Dole-Stanfilco were set ablaze by 15 armed NPA rebels led by a certain “Ka Ondo” of the insurgent group’s so-called Local Terrorist Front-27.

He said initial investigation found out that the reason for the burning of the container vans is the refusal of Dole-Stanfilco to give in to the NPA’s demand for the firm to pay “revolutionary tax.”

Holganza deplored the attack as another unlawful and immoral act by the NPA in Compostela Valley.

“This is another proof of the consistency of the terrorists’ decadent deeds in sabotaging our economy and making the people suffer. They do not recognize the right of the people to engage in free enterprise and they do not want our country to progress.

“The only thing they are interested in is the money they can steal from legitimate businessmen, small enterprises and ordinary farmers. The NPA has proved once again that they are the biggest extortion syndicate in the country,” he said.

Last Friday, another group of suspected NPA rebels reportedly attacked two police patrol cars in Pontevedra town, Capiz province, hurting two policemen and a civilian.

Pontevedra police chief Inspector Kenneth Ray Militar identified the injured victims as Senior Police Officer 3 Isagani Dadivas, Senior Police Officer 1 Leonie Dadivas and Maximo Bartlome, a resident of Barangay Bante, Pontevedra.

A police report said the victims were among eight persons on board two police patrol cars that were supposed to fetch another group of policemen who responded to a of NPA rebels being sighted in Barangay Pante.

The Pontevedra Police Station allegedly received the report around 6 a.m. and swiftly dispatched a team to check on it.

Militar said he led the police team that verified the report. He said civilians confirmed it, but his team failed to catch up on the rebels.

Before they returned to the police station, he said they called for reinforcement. He said the rebel group that were spotted loitering in Barangay Pante apparently left several members in the area who laid in wait for the police reinforcement and ambushed it.

Militar said the rebels had used landmines in their attack as three of the landmines that failed to explode were recovered by the police. Gina P. Elorde and PNA