Communists torch heavy equipment in Zamboanga

From The Standard (Aug 24): Communists torch heavy equipment in Zamboanga

At least seven heavy equipment units of four different private firms were separately burned   Saturday   night by different groups of rebels aboard motorcycles in Sta. Cruz, Zamboanga del Sur.

The almost-simultaneous” burning at around   7:35 p.m.   by the NPA destroyed   4 backhoes, 2 graders, a crane, and a dump truck.

Eastern Mindanao Command public affairs chief Captain Alberto Caber said that the military has declared a heightened alert in the province as the incident showed that the New People’s Army had intensified its operations.

Following the burning, a suspected NPA liaison officer was arrested  at a military and police checkpoint in Baragay Sirawan in Toril district in Davao City.

Caber identified the suspect as John Omega Nebris alias Part, alleged member of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee. He was arrested at around   9 p.m.

He said a caliber .45 pistol, a fragmentation grenade, 3 cellular phones, 13 sim cards, P5,000 cash, and personal belongings were recovered from Nebris. The incident was triggered by the NPA’s failure to collect “revolutionary tax” from the companies.

Caber said the rebels used gasoline in burning the heavy equipment units being used for road widening projects in   Sitio Kinukol, Baragay Darong; Baragay Kurunon; Sitio Tacub, Barangay Zone 1; and Barangay Tagabuli; all in Sta. Cruz town.

The 39th   Infantry Battalion has operational jurisdiction in the area.

Despite repeated claims by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that it had reduced the number of Red fighters to more than 4,000 only from almost 24,000 in the 1980s, it admitted though that the NPA continues to be a force to reckon with and remains its priority for internal security operations.

The military is currently concentrating its anti-insurgency campaign in Mindanao and event transferred sizable Army brigades from Luzon to battle the 46-yar-old NPA in Mindanao, the longest communist armed rebellion in Asia.

Army chief Lieutenant General Eduardo Ano admitted that the NPA and other armed groups such as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters BIFF, a faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and several hundreds of Abu Sayyaf Group remain their priority.

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