DAVAO CITY—New People’s Army rebels torched two manufacturing plants for boxes and plastic of Lapanday Fruits Corp. owned by the Lorenzo family early Saturday, the regional police office said.
Around 80 fully armed NPA men attacked the plants at 2 a.m. in Mandug and Bunawan districts here, a few kilometers away from the downtown area, police said. The raiders also seized the high-powered firearms of the plants’ security guards.
NPA spokesperson Rigoberto S. Sanchez said the attacks by the 1st Pulang Bagani Battalion “are a punitive action of the rebels against the Lorenzos, who committed numerous crimes against agricultural workers, peasants and lumads.”
Sanchez said the NPA also carted away the firearms of the security guards at the Lorenzo ranch in Barangay Pangyan, Calinan District here.
The rebels also set up a checkpoint at Tigatto, Buhangin district, where a fish vendor, identified as Larry Timbal Buenafe, 34, a resident of Agdao here was wounded after an improvised explosive device, believed to be left by the fleeing NPAs, went off.
Mayor Sara Duterte condemned the rebel attack, especially after she already offered them “a hand of peace.” On reaching the crime scene, the mayor said she was “insulted” by the NPA’s action.
“I take what happened today as a personal insult, especially because the local government of Davao City has been supportive of the peace negotiations between the National Government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines,” she said.
On her personal Instagram account, Duterte also questioned the raid, saying the NPA was no longer “fighting for people like Buenafe and the other civilian victims of the atrocities” caused by the rebels.
“We condemn these acts by a group that pretends to champion social justice and equality. With its history of carrying out atrocities and its continued penchants for lawlessness and bloodbath, the NPA is an organization that is not worthy of our trust and respect,” she said.
The mayor assured the public the government’s security forces are on top of the situation.