By Ronron
March 12, 2007
The communist New People’s Army (NPA) attacked anew a cellsite of Globe Telecommunications in Camarines Sur province over the weekend, police and military reports said Monday.
At least 15 armed rebels strafed the communication tower of Globe and burned its power generator using gasoline at around 11:40 pm last Saturday in Barangay Batang, Pamplona town, said Insp. Marianito Almendral, deputy chief of Pamplona police, in a phone interview.
Almendral said estimated cost of damages is P1 million.
“It is believed that said atrocity was staged by the terrorist group against the said company for refusing to give extortion money,” Philippine Army spokesman Maj. Ernesto Torres, Jr. said in a separate statement.
Torres said the insurgents escaped towards neighboring Barangay Tampadong of same municipality. They were pursued by elements of 42nd Infantry Battalion – Alpha Company.
Almendral said there was no casualty in the incident since no one was guarding the telecommunication facility.
He disclosed that the caretaker, who also owns the land where the facility is located, lives some 30 meters away, and was only made aware by the incident upon hearing the gunfire.
Almendral said that despite the attack, the facility remains operational.
The 7,100-strong NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside for almost four decades now.
Its mother organization, the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front, backed out from the peace negotiating table with the government in August 2004 after it was included in the terrorist lists of the European Union and United States governments.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered for the neutralization of the movement by 2010 when she ends her term./DMS
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