Rebels raid construction firm, burn equipment

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines – Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas burned heavy equipment owned by a private firm handling the construction of a water catchment project in Arakan town the other day, five days after the same group burned six trucks of a banana plantation in a nearby town.

1Lt. Nash Sema, spokesman for the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, said the rebels allegedly raided the equipment depot of the Davao Concreting Product Corp. in Barangay Ladayon, disarmed the security guards, and demanded protection money.

Failing to find the manager, the NPAs set a bulldozer, a road grader and two Isuzu Elf light trucks on fire.

“Apparently the arson attack was meant to pressure the construction firm into paying protection money but it refused,” Sema told The STAR.

The rebels fled after sensing the arrival of responding soldiers and policemen.

Local officials expressed belief that the NPA’s Guerrilla Front 53 was behind the attack.

The military earlier blamed the same group for the burning of hauling vehicles in an attack at the Sumifru banana plantation in Matalam town. –Alexis Romero, John Unson (The Philippine Star)