NPA rebels warn of more attacks (tags)
Communist rebels claimed responsibility for the raid on a Swiss mining firm in the southern Philippines and have warned of more attacks in the country. Rebels raided the Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) in the town of Tampakan in South Cotabato early Tuesday, torching buildings and equipment and attacking a military post nearby. Authorities said no one was injured or killed in the raid, which the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels claimed was a punishment for the giant Swiss mining firm accused of land grabbing, plunder and environmental destruction. The rebels said the raid was in response to a longstanding demand of the people to put a stop to the firm’s operations in the area.
Firms lose P43 million in damage from NPA attacks (tags)
PROPERTY destroyed by the New People’s Army (NPA) amounted to P43 million in the first quarter of the year. According to a study conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), NPA rebels inflicted the damage on business firms that refused to pay the underground movement the so-called revolutionary tax.
AFP beefs up anti-Red forces in Samar, Leyte (tags)
Pesante-USA reprinted the news of renewed AFP deployment of forces from Mindanao to areas in Luzon and the Visayas against the NPA. The new counter-insurgency campaign ordered by President Arroyo is reminicensce of the Marcos anti-NPA drive during martial law. Pesante condmens such gross militarization that will only result into more poltical killing that had reached more than 610 since 2001, hardship for the Filipino people and the perpetuatio of GMA into power.