Fifteen suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) wearing police camouflage uniforms raided a compound of a bus company and torched all the 11 buses they found inside before dawn Monday in Laguna.
“We’re still investigating,” provincial police director Senior Supt. Pascual Munoz said.
But he said police are not discounting the possibility that the culprits were NPA rebels because they were armed with high-powered firearms.
Investigators said the armed men arrived at the compound at around 1:30 a.m. and introduced themselves as policemen to the caretakers of the HM Transport.
Allegedly, the raiders were there to search the place for reported illegal drugs stored inside the compound.
The bus company plies routes between Laguna province and Cubao in Quezon City.
Munoz said investigators are likewise investigating the motive but if the suspects are NPA rebels the possible motive is extortion.
“Sa puntong ito iniimbestigahan pa namin ‘yan,” he said.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/68433/suspected-npa-rebels-torch-11-buses-in-laguna
At first glance, it looks like more economic terrorism by the Maoist New People's Army (NPA). Companies that refuse to make extortion payments to the insurgents often times wind up having equipment destroyed.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be little concern by the NPA about the ordinary Filipinos that suffer as result of these kinds of terrorist acts.
So now there are 11 bus drivers and conductors with no buses to drive. Do they still have jobs? What about the mechanics that service the buses? Are they still employed? What about ordinary Filipinos that rely on bus services to go to work or engage in other economic activities. How does this impact them?
The NPA purports to be "pro-people" but acts such as the burning of the buses proves their claims false. They are just thugs shaking down businesses for money for their own self-aggrandizement and the people be damned.