NPA rebels torch 4 dump trucks, cement mixer in Albay

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

LEGAZPI CITY, Albay – A squad of New People’s Army guerrillas set on fire four dump trucks and a concrete mixer at a road construction site in the municipality of Pio Duran Thursday afternoon, a police official said on Friday.

The eight-man NPA team struck at the construction site in Barangay Salvacion, an upland village some 15 kilometers from the center of Pio Duran town, at 2:40 p.m., according to Senior Inspector Larry Prepotente, the town’s police chief.

Prepotente described the village as a hotbed of communist guerillas.

The attack surprised the 53 construction workers, some of whom were then unloading construction materials from the trucks while others were operating the cement mixer, Prepotente said in a phone interview.

The rebels gathered all the workers and asked them to turn off their cell phones. They then set on fire the trucks and cement mixer, worth P1.2 million.

Propotente said the trucks and cement mixer were owned by Geronimo David,  project contractor of the Department of Public works and Highways.