Globe cell sites burned in Pampanga, Tarlac

ANGELES CITY, Philippines  – Armed men believed to be members of the New People’s Army simultaneously attacked and burned two cell sites of Globe Telecommunications at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday.

Sketchy reports received at the regional police headquarters at Camp Olivas in San Fernando, Pampanga said three suspects burned the Globe cell sites in Barangay San Antonio Lote in Mexico, Pampanga.

This happened as another group of 10 armed men in fatigue uniform also strafed and then burned Globe’s cell site in Barangay Estrada in Capas, Tarlac.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, the reports from the two towns’ police headquarters said, adding that estimate on cost of damage was not immediately available.

The reports said the rebels first fired their arms at the cell sites apparently to scare off guards, before dousing their targets with gasoline and igniting them.

The reports said that the two incidents could be related to the refusal of businesses to pay the so-called “revolutionary tax” demanded by the rebels.

Globe subscribers in Pampanga and Tarlac, however, did not report any disruption of cellphone service despite the burning of the two cell sites.

This, even as the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) reiterated yesterday that Tarlac remains one of the nine provinces in North Luzon which are already free from insurgency.

Nolcom spokesman Maj. Rosendo Armas said Tarlac was declared as such by Nolcom earlier this year, together with Aurora, Apayao, La Union, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and Pangasinan.

Armas said that while internal security operations (ISO) were turned over by the military to the local government units and the police forces in these areas, the military would still remain to merely assist them in security concerns.

Armas said that Nolcom commander Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, who assumed post a month ago, vowed to clear rebel forces in the other areas under Nolcom which has jurisdiction in all provinces north of Metro Manila. –-Ding Cervantes and Non Alquitran (The Philippine Star) with Ric Sapnu, Mike Frialde