PNP to file charges vs Joma, 60 others for Surigao attack

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is set to file charges against exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison over the attack on a mining firm in Surigao del Sur by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels last Tuesday.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon said Sison will be charged for robbery, destruction of private property, economic sabotage, and violation of the election gun ban.

The charges stemmed from Sison’s orders to step up the offensive against government security forces and "other targets of opportunity," which according to Calderon, included private companies.

Calderon ordered Caraga police director Chief Superintendent Antonio Nanas to file the charges.

On Tuesday, 60 heavily armed NPA guerrillas attacked the MG Mining Co. in Sitio Mendezona, Barangay Raja Cabungsuan, Lingig town.

The rebels ransacked the place before taking off with the personal belongings of the employees and the service firearms of the security guards.

Calderon said the NPA committed an act of terrorism in following Sison’s orders.

"Such a raid like that in Surigao del Sur is purely an act of terrorism because the NPA is sabotaging the economic gains of the country by disregarding the plight of the people in that place who are dependent on the mining industry," Calderon said.

Sison also has dozens of pending major cases in court, including the murder charges stemming from the bloody internal purges ordered by the CPP-NPA leadership against comrades they suspected as spies and military informants.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the CPP-NPA, through Sison and their legal fronts, is making the effort to "internationalize" the alleged human rights violations of the Philippine government to mask its own bloody record.

Esperon also declared "the continued presence of the NPA challenging the authority of the government is simply not acceptable."

"It prevents the government from performing its basic task of ensuring the peace and security of the country and taking care of the people’s welfare," Esperon said in his speech before Philippine ambassadors and consuls general during the First Policy Consultations with Heads of Post. – With Pia Lee-Brago