RPG fired at foreign vessel in Davao port

DAVAO CITY – Unidentified gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at a Japanese ship as it unloaded its cargo in the city port last Sunday night, but there were no casualties, authorities said.

The blast opened a four-centimeter hole in the rear right section of M/V Aries Forest, about 1.5 meters above the waterline, Col. Jaime Canatoy, Armed Forces spokesman, told reporters.

The ship’s Filipino crewmen were unloading logs at that time, he added. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last Oct. 11, another foreign vessel, the M/V Mountain, was also attacked with rifle-propelled grenades near the Tefasco wharf in Panacan.

But Senior Inspector Matthew Baccay, spokesman of the Southern Mindanao police command, said the attacks were isolated cases that could have stemmed from the ongoing labor dispute at Alcantara and Sons Inc. (Alsons), a plywood manufacturing firm.

In both incidents, witnesses claimed the attackers sped off in their motorboats toward Samal Island.

The M/V Aries Forest was docked at the Alsons’ log pond in Lamang when it was bombed.

The vessel sailed to New Zealand last Monday afternoon after local authorities had assessed the damage caused by the attack. The damage was placed at $10,000.

"Those were isolated cases which had nothing to do with the general peace and order situation in the city. They were clearly labor-related incidents since Alsons also uses the Tefasco wharf for the shipment of its finished pro-ducts," Baccay said. — With AFP