Eastern Mindanao, Philippines: New People’s Army raiding foreign mining operations

NPAs claim raid on ComVal mining netted bigger weapons

TUESDAY, 12 JUNE 2012
MANUEL T. CAYON / REPORTER, BusinessMirror.com.ph
DAVAO CITY—New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas claimed responsibility for the damaging raid on three mining operations in mineral-rich Compostela Valley province in Eastern Mindanao, and reported a big haul of small weapons and wounding government soldiers.

A statement released on Monday by the Merardo Arce Command, the NPA’s Southern Mindanao regional operations command, confirmed that it was its unit which “staged three coordinated raids against two big mining firms and a milling plant in Compostela Valley, June 8.”

One Rigoberto F. Sanchez signed the statement as the command spokesman.

In the statement, Sanchez said the NPA mustered three guerrilla companies to raid three mining firms in the towns of Maragusan, Nabunturan and New Bataan in Compostela Valley.

The raiders burned four heavy equipment and 10 generator sets. They also disarmed the guards of two baby armalites, one M14 rifle, 10 .45 caliber pistols one KG machine pistol, one Ingram machine pistol and 10 other “small firearms” that the NPA did not specify.

He said the NPA took a police captive for four hours and identified him as a police officer named SPO1 Charlito Alcuezar. The policeman was later released to a barangay official in Nabunturan.

In a previous statement, the government’s Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincon) reported only that the NPA raided the compound of Philco Mining Co. in Sitio Tagpura (Sabina), Barangay Camanlangan, New Bataan, at 8 p.m., on Friday and burned two backhoes, two elf trucks and a drilling machine. Four hours later, the NPA swooped down on Milagrosa Mining compound in Barangay Saranga, Maragusan, and disarmed the guards. They burned three generator sets.

The Eastmincom said there were no casualties in both raids, including the exploding of a landmine that it said went off prematurely.

But Sanchez contradicted the military version of the event, saying the detonation in Mawab town damaged a military vehicle and wounded five soldiers.

The NPA said its “[military] offensive in Compostela Valley was part of the continuing campaign against destructive large-scale mining companies in the region and would uphold the CPP [Communist Party of the Philippines] standing policy against big foreign mining firms, the operations of which have damaged the environment and dislocated peasants and indigenous peoples.”

In its statement, the NPA said “destructive large-scale mining operations in Compostela Valley hinterlands have resulted in grave landslides and other calamities in the recent years.”

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