5 people killed by suspected NPA rebels

MANILA, Philippines - Five people were shot dead by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in an attack on an agro-industrial firm in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur yesterday.

The military said an undetermined number of NPA rebels attacked the Shennalyn Tree Plantation Co., shot dead five of its employees and burned five heavy equipment in Sitio Milagros, Barangay Hawilian around 9:30 a.m.

“The victims were shot and we also received information that they were elderly workers. We are determining why they (rebels) had to shoot the victims,” Maj. Leo Bongosia, spokesman for the Army’s 4th division, said.

“It may have been a case of extortion. The company may have failed to give in to the demands of the NPA,” Bongosia said in Filipino.

Bongosia said the rebels killed a pastor, two plantation workers and two civilian employees.

Bongosia said there seems no other reason why the rebels would stage the attack.

“We cannot find any other reason because they (insurgents) cannot claim that the company is destroying the environment,” he said.

Shennalyn reportedly entered into an agreement with some indigenous people’s groups in Esperanza for tree plantation development amid the opposition by some Lumad groups.

The Lumads claimed the firm did not specify what it will intend to do with felled logs from the clearing operations. Shennalyn reportedly cleared some 20 thousand hectares of ancestral lands. – With Ben Serrano