NPAs torch Dole-Stanfilco equipment

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Communist rebels set on fire a multi-million boom-type sprayer truck of an international banana farm in Makilala, North Cotabato on Thursday morning.

The incident took place after the company’s management allegedly refused to pay “protection money,” police said.

Investigators said a group of New People’s Army guerrillas disguised as farm workers, and with guns kept in bags, arrived at a plantation of the Dole-Stanfilco at Sitio Basak in Barangay Malabuan in North Cotabato’s hinterland Makilala town.

The rebels then surrounded the truck chemical sprayer and burned it using kerosene and dried coconut palms. Afterward, the rebels fled toward a hinterland west of Barangay Malabuan.

Col. Prudencio Asto, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said members of the 57th Infantry Battalion, which has jurisdiction over Makilala and surrounding towns, have been deployed in Barangay Malabuan to prevent a repeat of the attack.

NPAs have burned more than P20 -million worth of farm machineries and road-building equipment of private contractors engaged in road-construction projects in North Cotabato in a spate of attacks since last year. – John Unson, Philippine Star