Two armed and hooded men set a payloader on fire in District 1 of Sibalom, Antique on Tuesday.
Mr. Edgar Basañes, caretaker of the burned payloader owned by Mr. Vince Kasilag of Jaios Trading, said two armed men wearing black hoods arrived at his hut near
“I was awakened by the presence of two men wearing hoods and armed with .45 caliber firearms. One of them poked his gun on me and told me to keep still so I didn’t get up. Then one of the men poured gasoline on the payloader and set it on fire. I heard three gunshots afterwards,” Basañes said.
“The hooded men left when the fire was already eating up the engine and the tires of the payloader. They walked towards the river. It was then that my companion Ronald Armamento and I went to the dike as our hut also caught fire,” Basañes said.
“I could not see their faces because they were wearing black hoods,” the caretaker said when asked if he could identify the suspects.
Basañes has been working as caretaker of the heavy equipment of Jaios Trading for almost four years. He’d been sleeping on the hut near the river bank for almost one year now starting when Jaios Trading sub-contracted the construction of
The payloader is being used in quarrying sand, gravel and rocks for rip-rapping of the approaches used for the construction of
SFO2 Nonie Biliran of Sibalom Fire Station said they immediately responded to the fire call.
“We actually responded with two firetrucks because the fire was already big and worsened because of the fuel in the gas tank of the payloader,” SFO2 Biliran said.
The firemen found an empty shell of a .45 caliber about a meter away from the payloader.
“This is arson because there is intent to burn the payloader,” SFO2 Biliran said.
On the other hand, the Sibalom police also conducted and investigation and found two empty shells of .45 caliber firearms.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=617691
Burning of equipment is characteristic of Maoist New People's Army extortion activities. This kind of activity is usually meant to encourage recalcitrant company executives to comply with NPA demands that they pay "revolutionary taxes."
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