NPA rebels raid budget hotel in Bukidnon

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Suspected communist rebels raided a budget hotel and restaurant in Bukidnon and seized weapons allegedly being used by hotel owners to threaten peasants.

Isabel Santiago, a spokeswoman for the New People’s Army (NPA) Herminio Alfonso Command, said rebel for­ces also ambushed pursuing soldiers and policemen in the village of Kipolot in Kitaotao town, but there were no reports of government casualties.

She said the rebels raided the Travelers Inn and Restaurant on Monday as a punishment for its owner, the Nietes family, for allegedly threatening peasants in the village.

“The Nietes family was disarmed as punishment for keeping high-powered firearms they used to threaten peasant civilians,” Santiago said.

But the Army’s 10th Infantry Division said rebels raided the inn and robbed its owners of more than P20,000 in cash and a pistol.

Capt. Rosa Maria Cristina Manuel, an Army spokesperson, said the rebels also took a civilian hostage who was later freed.

The NPA denied Manuel’s accusations and said rebels did not take any money. “As a matter of policy, the NPA do not take cash from punished targets. The allegations of the military are all lies,” Santiago said.

Major Gen. Reynaldo Mapagu, commander of the 10th Infantry Division, condemned the raid. “The evil tactics employed by these terrorists show their inhuman and ungodly motives. More so, robbing a fast food is pure felony.”

“We can clearly see that these local terrorists do not have any ideology at all. They are plain criminals who fester on the weak and take advantage of issues to advance their selfish motives,” he said. –Al Jacinto, Manila Times