Rebels torch more telecom stations

DAVAO CITY — Communist rebels set on fire communication relay facilities of four companies in Compostela Valley last Monday reportedly after their owners refused extortion demands, officials said.

Dozens of New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas stormed the village of Mahayahay in Mawab, Compostela Valley and disarmed private security guards in a compound housing transmitters owned by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Dole Philippines, Philippine Communications Inc. and Liberty Communications, Presidential Adviser Jesus Dureza said.

Radio reports said the guerrillas poured gasoline over the facilities, and set them ablaze, disrupting communications in the province with damage initially pegged at P50 million.

"The attack could be in retaliation for the firms’ refusal to pay illegal taxes," Dureza said, adding "it was over in several minutes."

The facilities were located just six kilometers from the headquarters of the 701st Infantry Battalion.

Soldiers and police were pursuing the rebels and have been deployed to protect other vital facilities.

There are at least seven other major telecommunications relay stations and towers in the nearby provinces of Davao del Sur, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, Agusan del Norte and Surigao del Sur which are believed vulnerable to attack, Dureza said.

The communists are known to demand "revolutionary taxes" from businesses operating in rural areas.

Monday’s attack came just two days after NPA rebels launched a similar raid on six relay sites of three mobile telephone companies in Pangasinan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac.

"The government is addressing these concerns and we are coordinating with the military to secure these areas," Dureza said. "We are not going to be threatened by these terrorist acts."

He said the NPA "is really desperate and does not care about the concerns of the people and the economy of the region, but their extortion activities."

The NPA is the armed wing of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines. Peace talks between the communists and the government were temporarily suspended after the rebels assassinated two legislators earlier this year.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao earlier appealed to the NPA to cease from undertaking "provocative actions" to salvage the peace talks. — Edith Regalado, Ding Cervantes, Benjie Villa, Eva de Leon