By Ronron
March 7, 2008
Suspected members of the New People's Army (NPA) raided a mining firm on Thursday night in Compostela Valley province, burning some equipment and carting away firearms from the blue guards.
Col. Benito de Leon, chief of staff and spokesman of the Philippine Army's 10th Infantry Division, said Friday that the incident happened at around 7pm at the APEX Mining Co. in Barangay Masara, Maco town.
De Leon said about 50 armed rebels stormed the mining firm, burning four low-profile trucks and a payloader, and disarming the civilian guards of five M16 rifles, two shot guns, two caliber 38 revolvers and four handheld radios.
He said the perpetrators arrived and left aboard one bus and two dump trucks.
De Leon has yet to find out if there was a firefight that actually happened after the raid, as well as the motive of the attack.
There were no casualties reported.
The military estimates that there are about 800 NPA elements in eastern Mindanao area, which, De Leon said, are active in their efforts against the government.
The 5,760-strong NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside for almost four decades now, but the government vows to crush the movement by 2010 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ends her term.
The communist movement withdrew from the peace negotiations with the government in August 2004 after they were tagged as terrorist by some foreign governments./DMS
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