New People’s Army (NPA) | INQUIRER.net file photo
BACOLOD CITY — The New People’s Army (NPA) claimed responsibility for the burning of five sugarcane trucks in Toboso town, Negros Occidental on Monday, December 26.
In a statement on Tuesday, December 27, Cecil Estrella, spokesperson of the Roselyn Jean Pelle Command (RJCP) – Northern Negros Guerilla Front of the NPA, said a unit of the group burned the sugarcane trucks owned by Teotimo Ballesteros on the 54th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines last Dec 26.
“The punitive action is the second incident against class enemy Ballesteros. On December 14, the NPA set fire to two cane trucks in Barangay Tabun-ac in the same town,” the statement read.
Ballesteros’ sugar lands, it said, are within the guerrilla zones.
The NPA alleged that the landowner disregarded his farm workers’ repeated calls for wage increases and benefits.
“The only peace talks the revolutionary forces in northern Negros promote is the one that addresses the wage and land issues…the peace talks should be at a national scale that tackles the root cause of armed conflict – genuine land reform to address landlessness, national industrialization to address unsecured jobs, among others,” it said.
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