Suspected NPA rebels torch heavy equipment, dump truck in Cagayan

TUGUEGARAO CITY — Sixty suspected New People’s Army rebels burned several heavy equipment and a dump truck at a construction site in Alcala, Cagayan on Thursday evening, authorities said.

The suspects, who wore camouflage military uniforms, burned three cement mixers, a compactor, a grader and a dump truck owned by Camia Construction Company at Barangay Agani, said Maj. Jefferson Somera, the Army’s 5th Infantry Division spokesperson.

Somera said the rebels fled to nearby San Esteban village and went to the mountains.

The construction owner, Engineer Bito Luyun of Apayao, was allegedly being extorted for revolutionary taxes.

Police and soldiers from the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion have launched hot pursuit operations against the rebels. Villamor Visaya Jr./lzb