By Saul Pa-a/ PNA
CALAMBA CITY — The commander of the Philippine Army’s 2nd Infantry Division (2ID) condemned the burning of hydro power plant equipment by members of the outlawed New People’s Army (NPA) communist terrorist group in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.
Maj. Gen. Rhoderick M. Parayno decried this latest attack by the NPA during the first Regional Development Council (RDC) and Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) summit at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) RDC conference room in Barangay Milagrosa, this city on Tuesday.
Parayno described the NPA’s burning of the heavy equipment stationed at the 8-megawatt Santa Clara hydro power plant on Monday as a violation of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) as stated in Republic Act 9851 or the “Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity.”
“The NPAs have violated, and is continuously violating IHL to prevent the people to develop, enjoy development and remain poor and hard up so that they will forever be under the clutches of insurgency,” Parayno said.
Latest report reaching the 2ID headquarters said the NPA arsonists torched three Volvo articulated dump trucks, a backhoe, two KIA service vehicles, a fuel truck, two trucks, two loaders, two transit mixers, two mobile cranes, a crawler crane, a batching plant and a crushing plant.
Reports showed the rebels took along with them four laptops, 12 handheld radios, two cellphones, a shotgun and a 9-mm pistol.
As this developed, military and police authorities are now conducting intensified pursuit operations and beefing up checkpoints against the rebels.
Col. Marceliano V. Teofilo, commander of the 203rd Brigade based in Mindoro, said that “due to the series of NPA setbacks in Mansalay and San Jose last week, they attacked the soft target like the power plant in Naujan to divert the attention of the pursuing troops.”
Teofilo lamented that the electricity that would have been generated by the hyrdo power plant would have benefited the rural communities, especially the Mangyan tribal communities.
“The Communist NPA Terrorists have already destroyed it and they are hampering the developments in Mindoro province,” he added.
