Thus ordered Lt. Gen. Bonifacio Ramos, chief of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), to his field commanders as he cited reports that the New People’s Army (NPA) is poised to attack telecommunication towers, power transmission lines, and the government’s flagship projects in the four regions north of Metro Manila.
Ramos particularly relayed the directive to Maj. Gen. Juanito Gomez and Brig. Gen. Armando Cunanan, commanders of the Army’s 7th and 5th Infantry Divisions, respectively, following intelligence reports that NPA rebels were planning to attack a cell site of Globe Telecom in Barangay San Isidro, La Paz, Tarlac.
"We are not discounting the possibility that the NPAs will direct their attention to other targets if only to make their presence felt in the regions," Ramos said. "What they are planning is clear sabotage."
The 7th ID covers the entire Central Luzon, including Pangasinan, while the 5th ID has jurisdiction over the Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley and Ilocos region.
Ramos warned that NPA forces in areas under the Nolcom’s jurisdiction might duplicate its offensives in the South in Central and Northern Luzon.
He cited the bombing of the international airport being constructed in Silay City, Negros Occidental, destroying equipment and facilities worth P30 million.
Ramos said the NPA attacked the Silay airport site after the project’s foreign contractor refused to yield to its demand for "revolutionary taxes."
"Now the project has been delayed for about a month," he said.
Ramos said the NPA torched a Globe Telecom cell site in Mati, Davao Oriental last Oct. 9 also because the telecommunications firm had ignored its demands.
"Here in Central Luzon, intelligence reports, corroborated by information from concerned residents, point to an impending plan of an NPA group in Tarlac to sabotage the Globe Telecom cell site in Barangay San Isidro, La Paz town," he said.
He said the officer-in-charge of the cell site has been alerted about suspicious-looking armed men seen around the facility. Soldiers have beefed up security in the area.
Ramos recalled that in January 2003, more than 10 NPA guerrillas swooped down on the cell site, burning the equipment in its control room and divesting its security guard of his shotgun, cellular phone and wallet. Damage was placed at P5 million. — With James Mananghaya and Artemio Dumlao