Village official killed in landmine blast in North Cotatabto
By Jeoffrey Maitem, Joel Guinto
Mindanao Bureau, INQUIRER.net
First Posted 09:34:00 07/24/2008
KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines—(UPDATE) A village official was killed and three others were hurt in a landmine blast Thursday in Makilala town in North Cotabato, reports reaching the provincial police office said.
Councilor Ricky Apolinario of San Vicente village and three of his companions were on their way to a banana plantation owned by Dole Philippines at around 6 a.m. to check for the presence of New People's Army rebels when the vehicle they were riding in struck a landmine.
Mayor Onofre Respecio said the incident was unfortunate but was still being investigated.
The rebels have been criticized for their use of landmines, but they have defended the practice by saying that they only used command-detonated landmines.
Major Armand Rico, spokesman of the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom), said in a separate interview that the suspected NPA rebels were in the area at around 5:30 a.m. and burned the palletizing equipment.
Rico said they were investigating the angle that the failure of Dole to pay “revolutionary tax” could have been the reason for the NPA attack.
"That is one of the angles we are looking at, prior to the attack, there were threats, the company received an extortion letter," he said, when asked if the company refused to pay the rebels "revolutionary tax."
Troops from the Army's 57th Infantry Battalion were dispatched to the scene, Rico said.
The attack came even as the military poured hundreds more troops with tanks and artillery fire to the Eastmincom area to stop NPA attacks in the region.
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