Suspected NPA rebels torch heavy equipment in Sultan Kudarat

ISULAN, Sultan Kudarat — Suspected communist rebels torched heavy equipment being used for road construction in the upland village of Hinalaan in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat, a belated police report said.

Chief Supt. Eliseo Tam Rasco, police regional director for the Soccsksargen region, told the INQUIRER that about 20 gunmen in fatigue uniforms, believed to be New Peoples’ Army rebels, arrived at the construction site of Janmerc Construction Co. at 4:50 a.m. Monday and set ablaze several construction equipment.

“A total of eight heavy equipment were set on fire,” Rasco said, quoting a report from Kalamansig Municipal Police Station.

Seven of the construction equipment were torched in Barangay Hinalaan center while a backhoe was burned in Sitio Saniag in the same barangay.

Among the burned equipment were a payloader, a cement mixer, a cargo truck, a road roller, a dump truck and a backhoe.

Rasco said police and Marines had been deployed in Hinalaan, one of the upland villages of the coastal town of Kalamansig where communist rebels operate.

The Janmerc is completing the concreting project of a road extending from Sen. Ninoy Aquino to Kalamansig, both in Sultan Kudarat province.

A police official said the communist rebels have been “mulcting” the construction firm, demanding revolutionary taxes and “protection money” so it could continue with the road construction.

The construction firm has repeatedly refused to give in to the demand. /atm