Hunt for rebels nets 14 suspects

A military armored vehicle suffers a flat tire after it was hit by an explosive device while it was on its way to facilities of Lapanday attacked by communist rebels in Davao del Norte. —ARJOY M. CENIZA

DAVAO CITY—Fourteen persons, including a woman, have been arrested by authorities during operations to hunt down about 100 communist rebels who, on Saturday, attacked the facilities of at least three companies owned by the Lorenzo clan in Southern Mindanao, officials said on Sunday.

Soldiers conducting clearing operations also recovered what authorities said were two bodies of slain rebels in the upland district of Calinan, hours after the 3 a.m. simultaneous rebel attacks on the compound of Lapanday Foods Corp. (LFC), owned by the family of ex-agriculture chief Cito Lorenzo, in the village of Mandug, some 15 kilometers north of this city.

The rebels also attacked the Lorenzo farm in the village of Pangyan, also in Calinan, according to Capt. Rhyan Batchar, spokesperson of the Army’s 10th infantry division.

Batchar said a wounded rebel was also captured and turned over to police. He said soldiers recovered an assault rifle and materials for making bombs in Pangyan village.

Civilian injuries

While the attack in Mandug was raging, another group of rebels also torched a factory of Macondray Plastic, another company owned by the Lorenzos, in Tagpore village, Panabo City in Davao del Norte.

A security guard of Lapanday, Reynaldo Talamaque, was wounded after a brief gunfight with the rebels.

A fish vendor was also wounded after a bomb meant for soldiers went off on a road in Mandug past 5 a.m. on the day of the attack, according to Senior Insp. Teresita Gaspang, Davao City police spokesperson.

In a statement, LFC said the attackers ransacked the plant offices and stole employees’ mobile phones, computers and other pieces of company
property.

“The company reported it was fortunate no employees who were working at the time of the incident were harmed or injured,” said the LFC statement.

“All of the company’s personnel are safe,” LFC said.

The firm said the rebels disarmed guards on duty before torching the firm’s box and plastic plants.

‘Vicious act’

The firm said it would cooperate with authorities in the investigation of the “criminal act” even as it called on the military and police to exert efforts to prevent the perpetrators from further “endangering the safety and security of people and inflicting damage to private property.”

The banana firm also warned that the attack could adversely affect the livelihood of its hundreds of employees and disrupt others who have businesses with LFC.

“It is they who are now jobless and shall bear the brunt of the consequences of this vicious act,” LFC said.

Batchar said 10 of the arrested persons had been released on Sunday after it was found they were indeed part of Lapanday’s security force.

Armed guards

They had been apprehended earlier at an Army checkpoint aboard a pickup truck. Seven of them had been in guard uniforms and were armed with shotguns and pistols.

Four other “suspicious persons,” with muddied clothes and rain boots on, were also arrested and still being held for further questioning, Batchar said.

Civilian and military leaders in the region condemned the attacks, calling these “senseless, selfish and
desperate.”

“Their acts clearly [show] utmost disregard for existing laws and human rights, contrary to what they are trying to project with their propaganda,” said the Southern Mindanao police and military’s Eastern Mindanao Command in a joint statement. —FRINSTON LIM