Communist rebels torch equipment for dam project in southern Negros

From the Philippine News Agency (May 10): Communist rebels torch equipment for dam project in southern Negros

The New People’s Army (NPA) in Central Negros admitted burning the heavy equipment and bunkhouse being used for the dam project of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental on May 7.

The confirmation by the rebel group’s Mount Cansermon Command (MCC) was included in a statement written in Hiligaynon and released to the media here on Wednesday night.

The group said one of its squads under the MCC successfully carried out the torching of a backhoe and a generator set, and the bunkhouse at the NIA construction site in Sitio Tagbak, Barangay Tan-awan around 7:45 p.m.

The act signified the strong opposition of the people to the government’s anti-people project under the Ilog-Hilabangan River Basin Project, it added.

The rebel group also said the project puts the lives of the residents at risk, particularly those who are crossing the Hilabangan River, and also dislocates the livelihood of those living in the dam site.

Brig. Gen. Eliezer Losañes, commander of Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade based in Negros Occidental, condemned the act of the communist rebels.

“The project’s purpose was to give development to the area so that the people will benefit from its use,” he said, adding that the NPA is not only anti-development, but even justifies being terrorist with its threats and intimidation to the people of Negros.

Losañes appealed to Negrenses to closely coordinate with the army and the police to stop the NPA from creating terror.

Last February 27, a group of NPA rebels also burned a farm tractor owned by Jorge Vargas at Hacienda Conchita in Barangay Sag-ang, La Castellana town.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1034800