NPA rebels on burning spree in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines  – New People’s Army (NPA) rebels appear to be on a burning spree in Mindanao as they torched six more heavy equipment in Surigao City Wednesday night.

On the same day, the insurgents also burned an Elf truck in Banaybanay, Davao Oriental, and yesterday, a passenger bus in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.

Authorities said an undetermined number of fully armed rebels barged into the house of Chari Mangacop, former mayor of Placer, Surigao del Sur, Wednesday night and seized four firearms, four handheld radios, cell phones, jewelry and other personal belongings. 

Outside Mangacop’s house, the other guerrillas poured gasoline on a backhoe, a mini dump truck, a 10-wheeler dump truck, a refrigerated van, a bulldozer, and payloader and lit them up. 

In Kitcharao, Agusan del Sur, 30 suspected rebels shot it out with men of the Army’s 30th Infantry Battalion, and a number of insurgents were reportedly wounded, the military said.

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario, Armed Forces Civil Relations Service chief, questioned the sincerity of communist rebels in attaining peace as they continued to attack civilian establishments.

Del Rosario cited the attack mounted by NPA rebels on the compound of Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corp. in Sta. Cruz, Ilocos Sur last May 22.

He said the rebels detonated an improvised explosive in front of the establishment and then burned sacks of tobacco in the warehouses. – With Ben Serrano, Alexis Romero, Jaime Laude