TAGUM CITY – Communist rebels swooped down on a mining company in Compostela Valley, owned by the family of Monkayo Mayor Manuel Brillantes and torched a hauler truck, police said Thursday.

Senior Inspector Rodolfo Pascua, Monkayo police chief, said about 50 communist rebels in black military uniform swooped down on the mine in Barangay (village) Mt. Diwata in Monkayo town and burned a 10-wheeler gravel hauler of the Joel Brillantes Management and Mining Corporation (JBMMC) at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Pascua said the gunmen – belonging to Front 20 of the NPA's Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC) under commanders Jason and Jecol – flagged down the vehicle in Purok Tinago and ordered driver Ronnie Miases and other passengers to get off.

He said the rebels reportedly "apologized" to the driver and to the passengers before dousing the vehicle with gasoline and setting it on fire.

The NPA regularly harasses the company because of its refusal to pay revolutionary tax, Pascua said.

Police records show that the deadliest attack against the company occurred in 2008 when NPA rebels stormed its gold-processing plant in Barangay Olaycon, also in Monkayo, and killed two guards.