Rebels fire no shots, take AK-47s in raid on power firm guards

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Without firing a shot, New Peoples Army (NPA) rebels pulled off a swift raid on the security outpost of Minergy Power Corp. in Balingasag town Misamis Oriental on Monday (Aug. 19).

Lt. Col. Anthony Derilo, Army 57th Infantry Battalion commander, said the rebels took five AK-47 rifles; a radio and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the guards from AY 76 Security Agency.

Derilo said the rebels did not fire a shot dueing the raid which was apparently just aimed at taking the guards’ guns.

The compound raided, located at the village of Quezon Heights, hosts a support facility for the company’s 165-megawatt coal-fired power plant on the shorelines of Macajalar Bay.

Nicholas Marino, spokesperson of NPA in Misamis Oriental, claimed that the rebel operation took only five minutes.

He said rebels seized four AK-47 rifles (not five as claimed by the military), several radios and 200 rounds of ammunition.

The raid on Minergy’s security outpost, according to Marino, is to teach Minergy “a lesson.”

“Minergy dumps its highly-toxic wastes in the bay and in a hole in that quarry site (in Barangay Quezon Heights),” Marino said.

Marino claimed that residents have complained to rebels about suffering from diseases including asthma and sore eyes ever since the power plant went into full operation in September 2017.

The Misamis Oriental provincial board has conducted an investigation into allegations of the power plant’s health hazards.

The management of Minergy has declined to comment on the incident./TSB