ILOILO City – Around five armed men set on fire a multicab and a backhoe owned by a private construction firm in Barangay San Juan, Sibalom, Antique.
According to Sibalom police chief Senior Inspector Adolfo Pagharion, the suspects – clad in military camouflage uniforms on board two motorcycles – arrived at the area where six construction workers and a foreman were staying around midnight on June 1.
The armed men then ordered foreman Jonathan Pacete and the six workers to stay still as they poured gasoline on the multicab and then the backhoe before setting them to fire.
The F and J General Construction Company owns the vehicle and the equipment.
“The owner has [yet] to declare the total damage,” said Pagharion.
Pacete and the construction workers were unharmed, he added.
The armed men then fled the area on board their motorcycles, heading to a mountainous area through Barangay Villahermosa in Sibalom.
Pagharion said before they left, the suspects introduced themselves as members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
They added that the owner of the construction firm failed to pay them revolutionary tax that was why they torched the multicab and the backhoe.
“We are conducting an investigation to know if they are really members of the NPA,” Pagharion said.
Captain Eduardo Prescioso, spokesman of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said what the suspects did was an “act of terrorism.”
He added that it was a clear indication that the suspected rebels were “suffering from hunger in the mountains.”
“Talagang naghihirap na sila kasi hindi na nagbibigay ng revolutionary tax ang mga businessmen kaya gutom sila talaga. We know that their main source of their logistics is the revolutionary tax in order to survive,” said Prescioso. “We are appealing to construction firms and businessmen not to tolerate their extortion activity.”/PN
