NPAs burn power firm’s plant, trucks in Mindoro
CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro – A company of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels burned down the batching plant, trucks and equipment of an energy company engaged in hydropower in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro last Monday afternoon.
Ka Madaay Gasic, spokesperson of NPA’s Lucio de Guzman Command operating in Mindoro island, in a text message to Mindoro-based media, claimed responsibility for the burning of the plant and trucks of Sta. Clara Power Corporation (SCPC), and said it was part of their punitive action against destructive mining and energy projects in Mindoro island.
Gasic said their operation against Sta. Clara started at about 3 p.m. last Monday when they entered the SCPC compound Barangay Malvar, which is a village located in the mountainous area of Naujan.
The NPA torched the batching plant, five big-foot trucks, two payloaders, a backhoe, a crusher and a cement mixer which paralyzed the operation of the company.
Also confiscated were a 9-mm pistol, shotgun, eight Icom radios and three laptop computers.
The NPA leader said no one was hurt in the NPA raid as the Sta. Clara laborers and employees were gathered in one corner where the NPA cadres explained to them their motive for staging the operation.
An initial police report from the Police Regional Office-MIMAROPA showed that the Naujan Municipal Police Station was informed about the incident at about 5 p.m. after receiving distress calls from Barangay Chairman Joel Ramos of Malvar, and a certain Sgt. Tamares of Citizens Armed Auxillary Patrol base of the Army’s 203rd Brigade at Metolza, Naujan.
According to Emilyn Tresioso, project manager of Sta Clara, she was informed by security personnel at around 4 p.m. about the presence of at least 30 armed persons, who introduced themselves as members of the Army.
Catherine Lagunera, assistant camp supervisor, said that all the employees were told by the NPAs to leave the site as they started to set fire the equipment, as well as the main and safety office and warehouse.
“The offensive is the NPA’s concrete response to Mindoreños’ cry for justice over the unparalleled damages caused by SCPC’s multimillion-peso hydroelectric power project in Naujan and Baco, Oriental Mindoro. The negative impacts of the SCPC power project on the people and environment were most apparent when Typhoon Nona hit the province in 2015,” said Gasic.
Gasic said Sta. Clara Power Corporation, a subsidiary of Sta. Clara International Corp., was to blame for the massive floodings and mudfloods in Oriental Mindoro in the aftermath of Typhoon Nona in 2015 and succeeding typhoons the following year.
“The said operation against a local company like SCPC is the NPA’s call to wage armed revolution to end poverty,” Gasic said.
The NPA claimed that SCPC undertook continuous underground blasting and logging in the mountains of Northern Mindoro as it also alleged that 10 people have died due to mudfloods, and at least R1.5 billion-worth of infrastructure and R2.9 billion-worth of agricultural properties have been destroyed.
“This is a clear message to all destructive mining and energy projects: the NPA does not allow plunder and environmental destruction in the island of Mindoro,” the NPA said in its Facebook post.
Gasic cited an anti-Sta. Clara rally on February 27, 2017, where more than 6,000 Mindoreños took to the streets of Calapan City to demand justice for the tragic flooding caused by SCPC, but he said their protest fell on deaf ears.