NPA rebels burn sugar farm’s truck in Canlaon City

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Suspected New People’s Army rebels burned on Thursday a cargo truck used in hauling harvested sugarcanes at Barangay Budlasan in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental.

Witnesses told the military that the about 10 NPA rebels, armed with high-powered firearms, waylaid the cargo truck owned by Lito Abellar, and ordered the driver and workers to disembark.

Investigations of the 62nd Infantry Battalion showed that the armed suspects told the driver and farm workers that they were only after the truck, the owner of which had refused to pay revolutionary taxes.

Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Banez, commander of the 62nd IB, ordered pursuit operations against the fleeing suspects, and condemned the NPA for this latest atrocity.