Cebu City mayor confident NPA won’t attack local execs

CEBU CITY — Mayor Alvin Garcia expressed confidence that the New People’s Army (NPA) will not launch any operation against city officials but gave assurances that visiting Japanese executives will be provided with full police security.

Garcia made the pronouncement despite the warning of Silvino "Ka Bino" Clamucha, spokesman of the communist regional party committee, that the Feb. 22 ambush of six Japanese engineers might not be the last attack if the city government fails to address the concerns of residents affected by the South Reclamation Project.

Garcia said that while the city government and the police are not taking the threat lightly, he believes that the underground movement would not go to the extent of harming city executives.

"I don’t think there is a present danger. I don’t think they will do anything that’s going to be unpopular or violent because it will just weaken their cause. I don’t think so," Garcia said.

The mayor admitted that he is beginning to believe that the ambush was, indeed, the handiwork of the NPA.

Acting Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said his office has yet to receive confirmation that the NPA was behind the ambush.

He gave assurances though that the national government will ensure the people involved in development projects, especially the foreign-assisted ones, will be given proper protection.

Garcia reiterated his stand that the government has not neglected the residents affected by the reclamation project, saying various livelihood projects have been carried out to help them.

Garcia echoed the statement of Dave Tumulak, adviser of the Cebu Fisherfolk Federation, saying the city government is willing to extend assistance to other residents proven to be affected by the 302-hectare reclamation project.

"If there are other families affected (by the project), they are welcome to see me (or Dave) Tumulak of the Integrated Sagip Dagat Association which is the umbrella organization of all those affected," Garcia said.

Tumulak said he, along with the 620 affected families, can attest that the city government has attended to the needs of the residents, saying the latest assistance came in the form of a P17-million alternative livelihood project.

In an interview over radio station dyAB, Clamucha said the reclamation project has to be stopped because it will displace some 26,000 families in the city’s coastal villages.

Clamucha clarified that gunmen of the NPA’s Jovito Plaza Brigade were never instructed to kill nor aim their shots at the six Japanese engineers working for TOA Construction, the contractor of the 4.5-kilometer South Coastal Road project.

He said the NPA gunmen, who were on foot, were only forced to spray bullets when the driver of the Isuzu van carrying the engineers tried to accelerate the vehicle toward them.

Clamucha said that while the gunmen were tasked to deliver letters intended for Toyo, Taishei-Maurubini and TOA Construction, they were not told to collect "revolutionary taxes" from the Japanese firms working on the reclamation project.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Simeon Datumanong said the Japanese contractors now "feel safe" as they resume work on the project.

Amid the NPA threat, Garcia said 50 executives of Japanese firms expected to arrive today for an investment mission, will be given full police security. — Freeman News Service