Communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels raided last Saturday the farm of the Republic Flour Mills (RFM-Swift) in Rodriguez, Rizal near the Bulacan boundary.
The guerrillas took five high-powered firearms and five handguns during the raid that was conducted several days after Senior Superintendent Ireneo Dordas, Rizal police director, placed all police units on alert.
Police and military officials have set up security guidelines to prevent sympathy attacks by the NPA to the beleaguered Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Mindanao.
NPA leaders were reportedly ordered to stage sympathy attacks for the MILF.
Dordas and Army officials have placed their units on alert status to prevent rebel attacks.
However, elements of the NPA Narciso Antazo Aramil Command staged the raid at 3:30 p.m. last Saturday at the RFM-Swift farm in the boundary of Rodriguez, Rizal and San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.
Macario Liwanag of the NPA Rizal Command claimed they were able to disarm the farm’s security guards, carting from them five high-powered firearms and five handguns.
Liwanag said the raid was a punishment for RFM’s refusal to pay revolutionary taxes and alleged anti-labor policies and destruction of the environment.
The NP leader said that Jose Concepcion III, owner of RFM, had a long list of derogatory records against the rebel movement.
Liwanag said the attack on the farm shows the active and serious efforts of the revolutionary government to show it means business.