Seven cargo trucks were burned by members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in a town in Bukidnon Sunday morning, authorities said.
Inspector Jiselle Longakit, information officer of the Bukidnon provincial police office, said around 200 Maoist fighters flagged down the vehicles in a portion of the highway in Barangay Palacapao, Quezon, Bukidnon around 6 a.m. Sunday.
Longakit said the vehicles that were set on fire were three prime movers and three wing-vans loaded with processed food packs and a ten-wheeler hauler containing cases of beer.
Two of the prime movers were empty while the other one was loaded with bananas.
Longakit said the NPA rebels, who were scattered along the side of the highway, signaled for the trucks to pull over and took away some items inside the vehicles before they were burned.
The Maoist rebels had also set up a checkpoint beside the road, she added.
“There was no casualty. The drivers and their aides were told by the rebels ‘Naug kay wala moy labot (step out of the truck, you have nothing to do with this),” she said in a phone interview with Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro on Sunday.
After burning the trucks, the guerillas went to different directions, she added.
A few minutes before the flagging down of the trucks, Longakit said a military patrol base some three kilometers away from where the crime scene was harassed by the insurgents, purposely to deter the army from responding.
At press time Sunday, the police are conducting investigation on the incident, she said.
Soldiers killed in Agusan del Sur
Meanwhile, two soldiers, engaged in peace and development missions in Agusan del Sur, were slain by suspected communist rebels in La Paz town, Friday morning.
The soldiers, both unarmed and on civilian clothes, were on their way to get their subsistence allowance when they were waylaid by the rebels, said First Lieutenant Krisnen Peter Sarsagat, 26th Infantry Battalion civil military operations officer.
They were aboard a motorcycle around 8:20 a.m. when at least five suspected rebels attacked them at San Patricio village.
"The two Army personnel were part of the Peace and Development Team (PDT) who are conducting Bayanihan activities or Community Organizing for Peace and Development in the said area," said Sarsagat.
Sarsagat declined to name the slain soldiers.
Lieutenant Colonel Rolando Dumawa, 26th IB commander, said he has deployed troops to go after the perpetrators.
"These were my men, they never meant any harm in that place and they are in non-combat posture when they were killed," said Dumawa.
"We will not stop pursuing these criminals until justice is served to the perpetrators of this dastardly act," Dumawa added.
Dumawa said the incident would not hamper peace and development projects in the area.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/local-news/2015/03/08/npa-torches-trucks-bukidnon-town-396297
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