Suspected members of New People’s Army (NPA) attacked a mining site in the town of Rosario in Agusan del Sur, seriously wounding three people, last November 1.
The rebels, according to the northern Mindanao police, attacked the Datu Bulawanon mining exploration company’s site at Ridge Mountain in Barangay Bayugan, Rosario town.
According to the police, the rebels used an M2O3 grenade launcher that hit the outpost of the Earth Saver Security Agency and wounded three of its security guards assigned in the area.
The security agency provides security for the Datu Bulawanon mining company that extracts gold and copper in the area. The wounded security guards were immediately brought to the DO Plaza Memorial Hospital in Barangay Patin-ay in the neighboring town of Prosperidad.
Meanwhile, suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) raided a provincial jail in Oras town in Eastern Samar October 31
About 30 fully armed rebels carried out the raid at around 8:30 a.m. when only three jail guards were securing the jail facility.
Senior Superintendent Emmanuel Cubillo, Eastern Samar provincial police director said the rebels took a caliber .45 pistol, a caliber .38 revolver, a shotgun, a Garand rifle, a laptop and the personal belongings of the jail guards.
Cubillo said the jail guards failed to put up a fight. He said some of the rebels also raided the home of Oras town policeman PO2 Vicente Pajanustan, just 50 meters from the jail, and took his M16 rifle.
The raid occurred while government forces nationwide were on a high security alert in preparation for the observance of All Saints’ Day.
Cubillo said members of the Philippine National Police’s Provincial Public Safety Company and Philippine Army, who have an outpost near the jail, have been deployed to pursue the NPA rebels.
The Philippine government does not have a ceasefire agreement with the communist rebels. Thus, attacks such as these are considered typical and even expected. Rebels have claimed that the mining companies degrade the environment.
The mining firms, however, say the rebels attack the sites because of non-payment of so-called revolutionary taxes. Similar attacks are expected but these remain isolated and undertaken in remote areas.
