Sultan Kudarat firm loses construction equipment in arson attack

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines — Gunmen set on fire some P30 million worth of road-building equipment of a construction firm in Kalamansig town Tuesday.

The Janmerc Builders lost two payloaders, a road roller, a transit mixer, a dump truck and a backhoe in the arson attack.

The firm is involved in government infrastructure projects in the seaside Lebak and Kalamansig towns, both in Sultan Kudarat province.

The heavily-armed arsonists arrived before dawn Tuesday at Janmerc’s motor pool in Sitio Midpanga in Barangay Hinalaan and burned the equipment using fuel from the firm's machinery depot.

Superintendent Aldrin Gonzalez, spokesman of the Police Regional Office-12, said Wednesday investigators are now trying to determine the exact identities of the arsonists.

Gonzalez said personnel of the Kalamansig municipal police have tapped the support of local officials and barangay leaders in trying to identify them.

He said the group had also burned a backhoe of the same firm parked along a road in Sitio Lower Saniag in Barangay Hinalaan before proceeding to Sitio Midpanga to set more heavy equipment on fire.

Barangay Hinalaan is near hinterlands frequented by New People’s Army guerrillas and more than a dozen NPAs have been killed in joint operations in Kalamansig and Lebak by the provincial police and units of the 1st Marine Brigade in the past 12 months.