NPAs raid Davao wood pole factory

DAVAO CITY – Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels swooped down on a wood pole factory in the outskirts of Davao City and torched a crane Saturday night, police said.

Chief Superintendent Andres Caro II, Southern Mindanao police director, said at least seven armed men barged into the security post of Caraga Filchin Corp. in Barangay Lasang, Bunawan district at around 8 p.m. Saturday, overpowering the company’s two security guards.

Caro said the armed men broke the glass door of the company’s and destroyed certain items.

Before fleeing toward neighboring Panabo town, the raiders burned a crane worth more than P500,000, he added.

Caro said the company has been receiving extortion letters from communist rebels.

Maj. Armando Rico, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command, said elements of the Army’s 73rd Infantry Battalion were pursuing the rebels believed to have sought refuge in the hinterlands of Davao del Norte.

In a related development, 30 families fled their homes as renewed hostilities erupted between NPA rebels and government troops in Veruela, Agusan del Sur last Saturday.

Reports said four guerrillas were killed and two others and a soldier, a certain Pfc. Reynante Sacote, were wounded in the skirmishes in Barangay La Fortuna, Veruela town.

Another encounter took place in Barangay Daywan, Claver, Surigao del Norte Saturday morning, leaving a certain Pfc. Anthony Budias wounded, according to police and military reports. – With Ben Serrano