2 heavy equipment trucks torched in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY –– Two heavy equipment trucks were razed on Friday night by a still-unidentified group at a government road widening project in Daraga town in Albay province.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Rod Betita, Daraga police chief, said the road equipment burned were a dump truck and a backhoe of the Verzontal Builders Inc. reportedly owned by Dennis Macandog of Daraga.

A report said the fire incident happened in the adjoining villages of Lacag and Pandan, where the attackers almost simultaneously set the two equipment on fire at 7:20 p.m.

The dump truck was at the roadside of Barangay Lacag, while a backhoe truck was in Barangay Pandan, some 300 meters away from the dump truck. Residents told the police that the dump truck was first set on fire then followed by the backhoe.

Betita said in an interview that they were still determining the identity of the group that committed the arson.

“We are not discounting the New People’s Army (NPA) to be behind the burning incident,” he added.

He, however, said initial investigation disclosed that the owner of Verzontal said they had neither received a threat nor demanded revolutionary tax from the NPA or other groups asking to take action on the road right-of-way issue affecting the government road-widening project.

Verzontal Builders had been commissioned by the government to implement the road-widening project in the said villages./lzb