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Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Rebels just want to control Diwalwal: military
THE New People's Army (NPA) is doing its best to cause the pull-out of military forces in the gold rush mountain of Diwalwal so the rebels could control the area, said Major Jose Maria Cuerpo II of the 5th Civil Relations Group (CRG).
The group accused the rebel group of greed and wanting for their own all of the gold reserves in Diwalwal.
"The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and NPA want security forces out in Mt. Diwalwal because they want to solely control the area all for their own," said Cuerpo.
Cuerpo made the claim in reaction to a recent statement of the National Democratic Front (NDF) that criticized the government for the crisis in the gold rush mountain.
He said CPP, NPA, and NDF are simply hitching on the crisis in Mt. Diwalwal for their personal hidden agenda.
"They have been getting resources from the miners through extortion. When the security forces came in, they were boxed out and thus were not getting substantial extorted money from the miners," Cuerpo said.
He added that it's been a common practice of the rebel group and their allies to issue pronouncement discrediting the government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to facilitate their plans and justify their cause.
"These greedy extortionist rebels are the termites of our country. They are the reason for our stunted growth and development. They do this on purpose, because they thrive in a community suffering from poverty and hardship," he said.
"Significant issues can come out on such a situation for the terrorist together with the progressive left leaning groups like Karapatan and Bayan Muna, to take advantage of the issues to instigate the poor and disadvantaged communities to criticize the government for the neglect of the terrorist communists' own making. By any lawful means, this must be stop," added Cuerpo.
Bayan Muna had earlier urged authorities to conduct a thorough investigation on allegations that the tunnel explosion was not a mere accident.
Bayan Muna regional spokesperson Jeppie Ramada called law enforces to look into the possible involvement of groups with vested interests in Sunshine tunnel's takeover.
The group noted that government studies cite millions of metric tons of gold, limestone, carbon, and copper in the Agtunganon Range where Diwalwal nestles that makes the area highly viable for large-scale mining investments.
Ramada said Philippine Mining Act of 1995 is giving multinational and transnational mining corporations the leeway to explore and exploit our nation's mineral resources at all costs.
"The noxious incidents in Diwalwal are implications of Arroyo's revitalization of the mining industry at the expense of the people and national patrimony," Ramada said. (BOT)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (November 16, 2005 issue)
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