Authorities here believed the harassment carried out by
communist rebels in a rubber plantation warehouse here was due to extortion.
Mayor Rudy Caoagdan of Makilala said prior to the attack by
seven men who posed as applicants of the rubber firm, leaders of the New
Peoples Army asked for a meeting with the owner of Pharma Rubber Industries.
The meeting did not materialize.
Caoagdan could not say what was the purpose of the meeting
but he said he can only surmise that the rebels wanted to extort from the
banana firm.
”Extortion was obviously the motive,” Caoagdan said.
Rubber plantation owners in Makilala, the leader in raw
rubber production in North Cotabato , have been
receiving extortion letters from the communist guerrillas. If demands are
rejected, the rebels would harass the companies, he said.
At 6:30 a.m. on Monday, seven men riding tandem on
motorbikes arrived at the warehouse of Pharma Rubber Industries to submit
application letters as rubber tappers.
Once inside the warehouse office in Purok 5, Barangay San
Vicente, the suspects pulled hand gun and disarmed the security guards of M-16
Armalite rifles, hand guns, ammunition and radio equipment.
The suspects then fled toward Barangay Luna Sur, a known bailiwick
of the communist movement.
At about 7 a.m. a roadside bomb went off in Barangay San
Vicente, the same road network leading to the firm’s warehouse.
Police said the road side bomb was intended for responding
police or military personnel after the NPAs harassed the warehouse.
The blast hurt a motorist and a by stander.
Previous incidents of harassment in Makilala were always
accompanied by roadside bombs.
“We are putting up plans to ensure the safety of business
firms operating in the province,” he said.
Caoagdan expressed the belief that the security of everybody
in the villages of Makilala was not the sole responsibility of the Army or the
police.
”We need the support of the civilian populace to prevent
similar incidents in the future,” he said, adding that the local government is
bent on preventing violence in the mountains of Makilala where the communist
movement has been active.
He called on the NPAs to open its door to localized peace
talks so that no innocent civilians will be in danger.
”We are all brothers and sisters, we are all Filipinos, why
don’t we talk and work together for the betterment of our people,” he told the
NPAs through DXND Radyo Bida.
The Army has condemned the NPA for using weapons of mass
destruction.
He said Army plainclothesmen will be deployed in areas known
to be infiltrated by the NPA.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=754698
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