Rebels burn three heavy equipment for road project
DUMAGUETE CITY — Three heavy equipment, which were being used for a national road concreting project, were separately torched Monday by New People's Army rebels at Barangays Luyang and Bagtic in Mabinay town, Negros Oriental.
Chief Inspector Felicisimo Aranas, chief of the Mabinay Police, told The FREEMAN that the said heavy equipment — a steamroller, a backhoe, and a bulldozer, estimated to cost a total of P5.4 million — were owned by a private contractor, Bigfoot Construction and Supply.
Mabinay Mayor Ernesto Dyango Uy said the road project is already 75 to 80 percent complete. But due to the burning incident, Bigfoot has to suspend temporarily its operation as a sub-contractor of the P80million road concreting project, spanning from Lumbangan and Luyang in Mabinay up to Pansiao in Manjuyod town.
Police reports showed that, at about 5 p.m. Monday, 10 armed individuals, two of whom were females, burned Bigfoot’s road roller or compactor that was parked at a vacant lot in Luyang, by pouring gasoline and setting it on fire.
At 7:35 p.m. on the same day, Chairman Edwin Garcia of Barangay Bagtic, also in Mabinay, notified the police that armed men also set on fire the back hoe of Bigfoot, while it was parked at sitio Butokon of the barangay.
By 9:20 p.m. a resident informed the police that a parked bulldozer at sitio Begonia in Bagtic was also burned down by armed men believed to be NPA rebels.
As a result, another contractor immediately pulled out its heavy equipment from the site, and Mayor Uy said that he was hoping that the projects in the hinterland barangays of his town will not be disturbed so that these will be completed before the rainy season.
Up to this time, however, there is no official statement from the NPA claiming responsibility of the burning incidents, a practice that they usually do. Authorities are looking at the possibility that the rebels burned the equipment in retaliation of Bigfoot's refusal to pay "revolutionary tax" to the NPA, after receiving a demand letter.
Mayor Uy said witnesses overheard the group, after the burning, yelling “mabuhay ang NPA” and then fled the crime scene. He also reported that at least 40 families of Luyang evacuated from their houses during the burning incidents, fearing of being caught in a possible crossfire between the rebels and the soldiers. They later returned to their homes after being told it was already safe to do so.
For his part, 62nd IB commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Bañez told The FREEMAN that the military condemn the Mabinay burning, saying it only showed that the rebels are preventing any development in that town.
Bañez added that he had deployed troops to the area immediately after receiving reports of the incident. As of press time, the military is conducting clearing operations there and are pursuing the armed individuals responsible of the incident.