Army repositions troops in General Santos, nearby areas after suspected NPA attacks

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 17): Army repositions troops in General Santos, nearby areas after suspected NPA attacks

The Philippine Army repositioned its troops in this city and parts of South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces following the series of attacks in the area in the last several days by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.

Col. Tyne Banas, commanding officer of the Army’s 1002nd Brigade, said Wednesday they deployed additional troops to secure critical highways and local communities with ongoing government projects.

Since weekend, armed men claiming to be members of the NPA have burned three heavy equipment and a passenger bus in three separate attacks in the area.

Two heavy equipment owned by a construction firm working on a road project in Barangay Alegria in Alabel were burned by alleged NPA rebels last Saturday.

Early on Sunday, a passenger bus unit of the Yellow Bus Line Inc. was stopped and later torched by suspected NPA rebels in Tupi town in South Cotabato.

In Purok 2 of Barangay San Jose here, around 30 armed men who claimed to be members of the NPA burned a grader owned by private firm T-Square Construction Corp. early on Tuesday.

T-Square is working on a P154-million road opening and construction project that will connect this city to the municipalities of T’boli and Surallah in South Cotabato.

Banas said they are still verifying whether the armed men who carried out the attacks were NPA rebels.

“We will follow the standard processes leading to the prosecution of these criminal elements,” he said.

The Army official assured that the perpetrators of the attacks will “answer to their crimes,” whether they are NPA rebels or members of other armed groups.

He maintained that they are sternly observing the standing ceasefire with the NPA due to the ongoing peace process.

As a result of the attack on the road project here, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Region 12 temporarily suspended its implementation due to security concerns.

Engr. Sukarno Dilangalen, DPWH-12 project engineer, said the suspension will continue until the situation is resolved.

He said project contractor T-Square Construction has started pulling out its equipment following the attack.

“We can’t do anything right now with respect to that, so the project is suspended temporarily,” he said.

Dilangalen said they have no idea as to the motive of the attack, stressing that they have not received any warning from any group prior to the incident.

For his part, Sr. Supt Maximo Layugan, city police director, said the attacks could have been carried out by extortionists and groups who were opposing suck kind of government development projects.

He said they have beefed up their deployment and security checkpoints in the area to prevent other planned attacks by the suspects.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=940653