Rebs attack yet another Mindanao firm

TAGUM CITY—Communist guerrillas followed up their attacks on three mining firms in Surigao del Norte with yet another attack, this time on a multinational fruit company in Compostela Valley, authorities said yesterday.

The guerrillas raided the compound of Sumitomo Fruits Corp. (Sumifru) past 4 a.m. yesterday in Barangay Kapatagan in Laak, Compostela Valley.

Maj. Jacob Obligado, head of the 10th Infantry Battalion’s civil-military operations, said the guerrillas burned some P5 million worth of heavy equipment and vehicles in the compound.

While the amount of damage that the guerrillas left behind in the Compostela Valley attack could be smaller than that which the NPA wrought in Surigao del Norte, the latest attack indicated that the rebels were enforcing orders made by their leaders to attack foreign-owned companies that the rebels accused of abuses.

Before and after the mining raid in Claver, Surigao del Sur, Jorge Madlos, National Democratic Front spokesperson for Mindanao, said foreign firms operating in Mindanao would be punished by rebels for “abuses on the environment and the communities.”

According to Obligado, the guerrillas first disarmed guards of Sumifru, taking three shotguns and four pistols. Shortly after, the guerrillas burned heavy equipment and company vehicles in the compound, he said.

He said the guerrillas later went to the Sumifru packing plant in nearby Barangay Ceboleda and burned a generator set. Obligado added that the guerrillas fled onboard a cargo truck belonging to Sumifru.

Lt. Col. Lyndon Paniza, 10th Infantry Division spokesperson, said all the guerrillas wanted was to collect so-called revolutionary taxes from the companies that they attack. Refusal by any company to pay, said Paniza, results in guerrilla raids.

The military said the same thing following the mining raid in Surigao del Sur.

Madlos, however, said the guerrillas were on a mission to enforce a rebel policy against mining and other forms of exploitation of natural resources that do not benefit the people.

“The revolutionary movement shall continue to uphold and to carry out our national policy of banning and dismantling large-scale mining, logging and agribusiness companies with a track record of violating revolutionary policies,” Madlos said in a statement issued after the Surigao del Sur raid.

Paniza said the military isn’t tolerating the rebel attacks. “We will not take this incident sitting down,” Paniza said of yesterday’s attack in Compostela Valley.

Obligado said pursuit operations are now being conducted against the rebels. Frinston Lim, Inquirer Mindanao