NPA claims raid on Sola farm

From the Visayan Daily Star (Feb 5): NPA claims raid on Sola farm

The Armando Sumayang Command of the New People’s Army Southwest Negros Guerilla Front has claimed responsibility for the raid on an hacienda compound and destruction of properties in Brgy. Camansi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.

Rebel spokesperson Andrea Guerrero, in a statement the NPA issued, justified the raid at the hacienda of Pablo “Jin “ Sola, claiming that the properties they destroyed, the disarming of security guards and confiscation of sheep, cannot compensate for what the hacienda owner had done to his workers.

The admission of the NPA bolstered the initial assessment of Col. Jon Aying, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, that the rebels were behind the atrocities, although the Sola family had believed otherwise.

The Sola family placed the damage at P600,000.

Guerrero said the successful punitive actions against the Sola family also led to the recovery of five shotguns, a .38 caliber revolver, fragmentation grenade and monocular night vision goggles.

The rebel group also burned a tractor and two guardhouses of the hacienda.
Aying yesterday said that even from the start, they knew that the NPA was behind the hacienda raid, where more than 20 civilians, including children, and security guards were taken as hostages for almost 10 hours, although they were left unharmed later.

Fortunately, he said, not a single member of the Sola family was at the hacienda, when the rebels swooped down on the area, as he believes that something might have happened to them.

Guerrero enumerated the alleged harassment of farm workers, who, he said, had reportedly been threatened with guns, and their houses either destroyed or burned.

Sola, son of the late Kabankalan Mayor Pablo Sola, owns 14 hectares of the 133-hectare property.

Aying said the NPA rides on the issue of the agrarian reform conflict between the workers and the Sola family, to project the idea that they are helping the ordinary people, by using suppression and violence.

Sola said Sunday that some workers, are encroaching on their 14-hectare property and stressed that their property is not covered by the agrarian reform program of the government.

Guerrero also slammed the military for deploying more Army soldiers in the hacienda, claiming that it created fear among the farm workers.

The rebel group also claimed responsibility for the summary execution of CAFGU member Ricky Camacho in Brgy, Magballo, Kabankalan City, and justified the killing of the para-military trooper, who it said, was organizing an intelligence network of the Philippine Army in Brgy. Canlamay, Ilog.

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2014/February/05/topstory4.htm