NPA destroys P18M in Negros properties

From the Visayan Daily Star (Mar 6): NPA destroys P18M in Negros properties

About P18 million worth of properties of private companies and farms have either been damaged or destroyed by the New People’s Army in Negros Island in two years, the military said.

Maj. Rey Tiongson, spokesman of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said the atrocious attacks, including burning of sugarcane plantations, heavy equipment, cargo trucks, farm tractors, and telecommunication facilities, were perpetrated by the NPA from 2010 to 2012.

Tiongson said majority of the attacks in Negros took place in 2011.

He added the rebels attacked the Philex Mining Corp. camp in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental, and burned a bunkhouse and a utility vehicle on July 6, 2011 because of the company’s resistance to pay the NPA “revolutionary taxes”.

On Jan. 9, 2012, the rebels also bombed a telecom cell site in Brgy. Hilaitan, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, and damaged the powerhouse of the installation, military records show.

Other NPA-violent incidents recorded by the 3ID were the burning of five hectares of sugarcane plantation, a farm tractor and cargo truck in Brgy Tapi, Kabankalan City; Volvo heavy equipment in La Castellana; and the electric transformer of the Victorias Milling Co. pump house in Victorias City, two years ago.

Tiongson said the rebels killed 46 people since 2010, and that the January 27 massacre in La Castellana that claimed the lives of eight civilians and a police officer, was the most horrible, as the victims were shot in the head.

The military said that regionwide, the NPA destroyed P23 million worth of properties, in what Maj. Gen. Jose Mabanta, 3ID commander, described as the rebels “desperate attempt” to impede progress in Western Visayas.

These criminal activities further show that the CPP-NPA-NDF is not putting primacy to human rights, Mabanta said in a press statement.

Military records also show the NPA burned a farm tractor in Lemery, and a dump truck in Tigbauan, both of Iloilo.

Mabanta reiterated his appeal to the public to report the activities of the rebels to put an end to their atrocities.

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2013/March/06/negor1.htm