The Army’s 4th Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Victor Felix on Tuesday said the perpetrators were 30 NPA rebels and 50 members of the Militia ng Bayan (MB).
“We condemn to the highest level this dastardly act by the communist terrorists for their relentless economic sabotage activities against private business sector. I’ve already ordered the commander on the ground to conduct relentless pursuit operations against them,” Felix said.
In a report released by Col. Romeo Gan, commander of the 401st Brigade based in the area, the rebels conducted the burning at around 1:30 a.m. and immediately fled after.
“Also razed to the ground were 3 Sadam trucks and the packing and fertilizers’ storage rooms of the company,” Gan said, adding they have yet to receive the total amount of damages from the Dole management in the area.
Gan said some workers in the company suspect that the motive of the burning was due to the company’s refusal to give in to the NPA’s demand of “revolutionary tax.”
“The motive is extortion,” said Gan.
Surigao del Sur Gov. Johnny Pimentel said the NPA rebels who raided the DOLE warehouse, hog-tied the security guards, poured gasoline on the ground, three cargo trucks and a motorcycle, and set them ablaze before leaving the premises.
The rebels also took the firearms of the security guards.
DOLE Philippines has been under attack from NPA rebels almost every other month. Last June, some 60 rebels also swooped down at Barangay Anahaw Daan DOLE plantation and chopped off the banana plants.
Over the past few months, the 4th ID’s area of operation had been the target of countless NPA economic sabotage owing to the abundance of lucrative businesses in the area.
Most of the attacks targeted multinational agricultural business who continued to refuse giving in to the rebels’ “revolutionary tax collection” as protection money.
On Monday, in an ambush interview in Camp Aguinaldo, Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Oban did not include the Surigao provinces in the 4th ID’s jurisdiction as among areas of military’s concentration for internal security operations.
“Ever since our focus is (on) Luzon, Bicol, the Visayas, particularly Samar and Negros, and in Mindanao such as the CARAGA and Compostela Valley,” Oban told reporters, adding the number of armed NPA rebels “have decreased.”
On Sunday, NPA rebels raided the motorpool of the Victory Liner in Capas, Tarlac where they burned several buses and a truck.
The military said the number of NPA fighters had waned to only more than 4,000 over the past few years from a peak of more than 24,000 in the 1980s.
The Aquino administration has engaged in exploratory talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the negotiating arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the NPA, for the resumption of peace negotiations after the Arroyo administration suspended the peace talks indefinitely in August 2004.
