Reds torch Mt. Province schoolhouses

BAGUIO CITY – New Peoples Army (NPA) guerrillas burned three school buildings in Natonin, Mt. Province last month after the principal reportedly refused to give in to their extortion, the military said.

Lt. Gen. Bonifacio Ramos, chief of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command, said the insurgents had demanded P300,000 from Belena Gamonac, principal of the Tonglayan Elementary School, and a stop to the teaching of anti-communist doctrines to the students.

Ramos said Simon Naogsan Sr., spokesman of the Cordillera Peoples Democratic Front and leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA in Mt. Province, raised their demands to Gamonac sometime last November.

The principal, however, refused to give in, saying the education department lacked money, besides the fact that the whole deal was illegal.

Gamonac also explained to the CPP-NPA leader that she could not stop lectures against communism because these were part of the subject Hekasi or Heograpiya, Kasaysayan at Sibika, Ramos said.

"You will regret this if something happens here," an irate Naogsan was quoted as threatening the principal in the dialect.