DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 19, 2014) – Dozens of communist rebels on Monday raided a mining firm in the southern Philippines and seized assorted weapons, security officials said.
Officials said New People’s Army rebels swooped down on Sodaco, a subsidiary of DMCI Holdings in Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat province and disarmed its security guards before ransacking the arsenal.
“There is an operation going on and police and military forces are pursuing the raiders,” Capt. Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said there were no casualties in the raid, but rebels led by Joan Casamorin and Randy Lasib managed to flee with 14 shotguns, six .45-caliber pistols, a laptop and one GPS global navigation tool.
He said NPA rebels also attacked the facilities of Sagittarius Mining in Davao del Sur’s Kiblawan town and torched 3 container vans that served as sleeping quarters of security guards.
Caber said the facility has long been abandoned by Sagittarius Mining and that security guards were only there to guard it from thieves. “We condemn these attacks by the terrorist group NPA. The latest attacks just showed how desperate these terrorists are,” he said.
There was no immediate statement from the NPA about the attacks, but it has previously warned mining companies to stop its operations after accusing them of destroying the environment and illegally occupying ancestral domain.
The NPA has been fighting for the establishment of a communist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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