By Edwin Fernandez/PNA
ISULAN, Sultan Kudarat – Police here said Wednesday that suspected communist rebels torched eight heavy equipment being used for road construction in the upland village of Hinalaan in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat.
In a belated statement, Chief Supt. Eliseo Tam Rasco, police regional director for Region 12 (Soccsksargen), said that gunmen in fatigue uniform, believed to be New Peoples’ Army (NPA) rebels and numbering about 20, arrived at the construction site of Janmerc Construction Company at 4:50 a.m. Monday 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.
Among the burned equipment were payloader, cement mixer, cargo truck, road roller, dump truck, and backhoe.
Rasco said 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.
The Janmerc construction firm is currently undertaking 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 mulcting the construction firm, demanding revolutionary taxes and “protection money” so it can continue road construction. The demand was repeatedly denied by the management.
