BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The New People’s Army Mt. Cansermon Command yesterday issued a statement claiming responsibility for the burning of a heavy equipment in Sitio Bulod, Brgy. Carabalan, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental.
Ka Dionesio Magbuelas, spokesperson of the rebel group, issued a stern warning against what he calls destructive and harmful economic activities, which is detrimental to the poor peasants and ancestral domain of the Indigenous Peoples in the mountain ranges and forest lands in the boundary of Binalbagan and Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, as well as La Libertad and Tayasan in Negros Oriental.
On September 11, about seven armed men burned a back hoe owned by a private contractor in Brgy. Carabalan, Himamaylan City, where a road concreting project which will link the road network to Tayasan, Negros Oriental is ongoing.
The estimated damage has not been established as of this time.
Himamaylan City Mayor Raymund Tongson yesterday dismissed the incident as an “isolated case”, adding that he expects the road concreting project to resume next week.
Lt. Col. Romeo Vargas, Himamaylan City police chief, said that the armed suspects spared the heavy equipment operator, barangay tanod and two other civilians from harm, after burning the backhoe.
Initial police investigations show that the suspects poured a gasoline and burned a heavy equipment owned by Elwin Javelosa, a private contractor of a road concreting project in the area.*
