NPAs torch backhoe

MANILA, Philippines - Communist insurgents in Catanduanes torched on Thursday a heavy construction equipment of a company that refused to give in to their extortion demands, the military said.

Lt. Col. Danilo Aquino, commander of the Army’s 83rd Infantry Battalion, said a local unit of the New People’s Army (NPA) burned a backhoe owned by construction firm Sunwest Corp., which was conducting maintenance work along the 80-kilometer stretch of the San Andres-Virac-Viga Road, part of the province’s 200-kilometer circumferential road.