NPA situation in Panay bleak and desperate–Army official
The move of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army of hijacking a container van delivering eggs and cigarettes Monday noon in Brgy. Samlague, Leon, Iloilo shows “how bleak and desperate they have become in the island of Panay,” the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army said.
“They destroy a van to steal its eggs because they cannot rely on the support of the masses anymore. Waning popular support, corruption within their organization, extreme hunger, and always living in fear, may have pushed our comrades to act in desperation,” 1st Lt. Mark Andrew Posadas, 3rd ID Division spokesperson, said.
Five rebels boarded the vehicle at Leon Public Market and, at gunpoint, took over the wheel from driver Joemarie Tuadles.
The rebels proceeded to Brgy. Samalague and torched the van owned by Mega Via Corp., a local contracting firm of Philip Morris, based in La Paz district, Iloilo City.
Before they set the van on fire, the rebels emptied the vehicle of cigarettes and eggs, which would have been sold at the Leon town market.
The robbers carted away P270,000 in cash collections before burning the van using a molotov bomb.
Posadas said such “well-known scheme of the CPP-NPA is a means of survival for them, by threatening and coercing business owners into giving them basic provisions so that they will not starve to death.”
The incident was immediately reported to the Leon Police Station, which alerted the 82nd Infantry Battalion based in Miag-ao town. The 82nd IB immediately deployed troops to pursue the armed men.
In July last year, a similar incident happened in Igbaras town wherein a delivery van containing Philip Morris products was also hijacked and burned by communist rebels.
The NPA’s Southern Panay Front took responsibility for the criminal act as retribution for non-payment of extortion money that the rebels consider “revolutionary taxes.”
The owner and operator of the truck in both Igbaras and Leon attacks
are the same.
“The patterns of attack are similar and it is apparent that the intended target of the extortion and destruction of private property is Mega Via Corp.,” Posadas said.
