NPA rebels torch heavy equipment at quarry site

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Around five heavily armed set on fire two heavy equipment of a private construction firm at a quarry site in Barangay Caticugan in Siaton, Negros Oriental shortly after midnight Saturday.

Initial police investigation showed that at around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, the unidentified armed men on board three motorcycles arrived at the quarry site at sitio Pilapil in Barangay Caticugan and torched a Komatsu backhoe and a payloader.

The heavy equipment belonged to Medalla Construction, owned by 53-year-old widow Medalla Yocor Sia, a resident of Barangay Banilad in Dumaguete City.

A witness said the unidentified suspects fired at the windshields of the heavy equipment and shouted in the dialect “okey na, mabuhay ang NPA," before leaving the crime scene.

Recovered from the scene were 45 pieces of fired cartridges, three pieces of live ammunition for Carbine, nine pieces of fired cartridge of .9mm pistol, two live ammunition of a .9mm Luger, a deformed slug of undetermined caliber, and a one-gallon container full of gasoline, the police report said.

No one was reported injured. Investigators are now still trying to determine whether the perpetrators are indeed members of the New People’s Army.

Siaton Police head, Chief Inspector Varie Villanobos, said a joint security force of local police personnel and elements of the Philippine Army, the Regional Public Safety Battalion, the Provincial Public Safety Company and the Special Weapons and Tactics proceeded to the crime scene around 10 a.m. Sunday.

Further investigation is underway as Scene of the Crime Operatives also went to the quarry site to process the crime scene, Villanobos added. (FREEMAN)