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SULU ISLAND: Communist insurgents raided a mining
firm in Compostela Valley province and warned of more attacks in the
southern Philippines, officials said Wednesday.
About 20 insurgents, who are
members of the New People’s Army (NPA), attacked a field office of
the Philco Mining Corp. in the village of Camanlangan in New Bataan
town on Tuesday.
The gunmen torched a generator
and then escaped. No one was killed or hurt in the raid, said Lt.
Col. Kurt Decapia, a spokesman of the Army’s 10th Infantry
Division.
Decapia said soldiers were
pursuing the insurgents. “There is an operation going on. Troops
from the 28th Infantry Battalion are tracking down the raiders,”
he told The Manila Times.
The raid came barely a day after
suspected insurgents gunned down a policeman at a crowded market in
the town of Cateel in Davao Oriental province.
Police blamed the NPA in the
killing of Ireneo Poblete, who was shot at close range while buying
food late Monday afternoon. The insurgents warned it would target
abusive policemen, soldiers and government officials who violate
human rights and oppress the poor.
Last week, insurgents also raided
a police base in the town of Banaybanay also in Davao Oriental and
seized 18 mostly automatic weapons.
The NPA’s Merardo Arce Command
said it seized so many weapons from soldiers and policemen the past
three months that it was able to arm two new rebel platoons,
Rigoberto Sanchez, the group’s spokesman, said.
“The NPA will inflict mounting
casualties, seize more arms and accelerate the building of more NPA
platoons,” he said.
The NPA is the armed wing of the
outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, which is fighting for a
separate Maoist state in the country.
--Al Jacinto
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