BANSALAN, Davao del Sur, Philippines\u2014Suspected New People\u2019s Army\u00a0 rebels torched four pieces of heavy equipment owned by a Chinese company undertaking a road rehabilitation project here late Friday night, police said Saturday.<\/p>\n
Senior Inspector Deozar Almaza, Bansalan police chief, said four men riding tandem on two motorcycles arrived in Barangay Dolo here around 11:30 p.m. and immediately went to a section of the road where\u00a0 a backhoe, a payloader, a grader and a roller truck\u2014all owned by the Qingdao-based Qingjian Group\u2014were parked.<\/p>\n
The Chinese company has been doing concreting works on the Bansalan portion of the Davao del Sur-North Cotabato highway.<\/p>\n
Almaza said the men divested security guard Marlon Auza of his .38 caliber pistol and then introduced themselves to the construction workers as NPA rebels.<\/p>\n
They then poured gasoline on equipment and set the road construction vehicles on fire, Almaza said.<\/p>\n
He estimated the damage at about P800,000.<\/p>\n
Bansalan Mayor Edwin Reyes said he has ordered a thorough investigation of the incident.<\/p>\n
Ricky Gu, project director of Qingjian, said the incident would stall work but added the company was looking for ways to resume work quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour major pieces of equipment were burned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The NPA has recently renewed attacks against various corporations in Mindanao.<\/p>\n
On October \u00a027, the rebels\u00a0 torched a van owned by Japanese Sumitomo Fruits Corp. (Sumifru) in Makilala, North Cotabato.<\/p>\n
Also in October, NPA rebels raided the compound of Sumifru in Compostela Valley and burned equipment and other facilities.<\/p>\n
On October 3, heavily armed NPA rebels\u00a0 stormed the compound of a mining conglomerate in Claver, Surigao del Norte, and set over 100 trucks and other heavy equipment on fire.<\/p>\n
Originally posted at 1:05 p.m.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Suspected New People\u2019s Army rebels torched four pieces of heavy equipment owned by a Chinese company undertaking a road rehabilitation project here late Friday night, police said Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,46],"tags":[41955,1700,126,7994,206081],"byline":[766],"source":[206070],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n