SULTAN KUDARAT: Rebels burn construction equipment

REGIONAL

One of the equipment burned/Photo courtesy of PRO-12

Suspected communist rebels burned eight heavy equipment used for road construction in Hinalaan, Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat, Monday, January 7.

In a statement, Chief Supt. Eliseo Tam Rasco, police regional director for Region 12 (Soccsksargen), said that about 20 gunmen wearing fatigue uniform, believed to be New Peoples’ Army (NPA) rebels arrived at the construction site of Janmerc Construction Company at 4:50 a.m. and burned the equipment.

“Eight heavy equipment were set on fire,” Rasco said, quoting a report from the Kalamansig municipal police office.

Seven of the construction equipment were torched in Barangay Hinalaan center while a backhoe was burned in Sitio Saniag, also in the same barangay.

Some of the equipment burned were a pay loader, cement mixer, cargo truck, road roller, dump truck, and backhoe.

Police and Philippine Marines have been deployed in the village of Hinalaan, one of the upland villages of the coastal town of Kalamansig where communist rebels operate, said Rasco.

The Janmerc construction firm is currently doing a road-concreting project between the towns of Senator Ninoy Aquino and Kalamansig, both in Sultan Kudarat province.

Rasco said the communist rebels have been demanding from the construction firm, revolutionary taxes and “protection money” so it can continue with the road concreting project which was repeatedly dismissed by the management.