NPA attack destroys P20M properties in Makilala town

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  -  The attack Sunday by New people's Army  on a rubber plantation in Makilala town destroyed P20-million worth of factory, leaving some 700 workers jobless.

The NPAs that burned down the processing plant of the Standard Rubber Development Corp. in Talun-Talunan, Makilala also killed a worker and wounded two others.

Members of the Makilala municipal peace and order council said the incident also left them helpless to address the needs of displaced  rubber farm workers.

The NPAs that  attacked on Sunday blong to the Guerrilla Front 72, led by led Felix Armodia, who collects protection money from communities in Makilala and nearby towns in the province and Davao del Sur.

“The rubber processing plant the NPAs burned provided people in Talun-Talunan with livelihood. With the plant gone, where will the farm workers get money to feed their families? These NPAs are barbaric,” said a local official, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

1Lt. Nash Sema, civil-military operations officer of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, which has jurisdiction over Makilala town, said the NPA that raided the plantation fled to a forested area at the foot of Mt. Apo, which is surrounded by North Cotabato, Bukidnon and Davao Del Sur provinces.

Sema said the 57th IB is ready to  assist Makilala  govenment to gather evidence and file  arson, murder and frustrated murder cases against Armodia and his followers.

Chief Inspector Joyce Birrey, chief of the Makilala municipal police, said the management of the rubber firm had initially placed at P20 million the damage to property  because of the attack.

Birrey said the rebels attack  the plantation after its owner  refused to shell out “protection money”.

The same band of NPAs also had also burned, in separate attacks last month, millions worth of heavy equipment of a Cavendish banana farm and road-building machineries of a private contractor implementing an irrigation project in North Cotabato’s neighboring Matalam and Arakan towns. - John Unson