Friday, July 25, 2008 Rebels raid Dole plantation in North Cotabato By Malu Cadelina Manar Correspondent
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Suspected communist rebels torched two mobile packing plants owned by the Dole Stanfilco, biggest banana plantation in North Cotabato, in Barangay Luna Norte in Makilala town, around 5:30 a.m. Thursday, police said.
Authorities identified the perpetrators as members of the Herminio Alfonso Command of Front 52 of the New People's Army (NPA) operating in Makilala and other hinterlands areas in North Cotabato.
The attack came two days after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited Makilala town where she was briefed about the situation of the rubber industry in North Cotabato.
Inspector Ramel Hojilla, Makilala police chief, said that after the rebels burned the packing plants, they blasted off a landmine planted 50 meters away from the site that hit the multi-cab where village councilor Ricky Apolinario of Barangay San Vicente, also in Makilala, and three others were onboard.
Apolinario, chair of the committee on peace and order of Barangay San Vicente, died on the spot due to multiple shrapnel injuries.
Hojilla identified those wounded in the landmine blast as PO1 Brixtol Catalan of the Makilala police; village guard Nino Manlique of Barangay San Vicente; and a certain Moreno.
The multicab driven by Apolinario was part of the convoy that proceeded to the area to check the report.
The other vehicles, including Hojilla's car, Makilala Fire Station's fire truck, and the military truck of the 57th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army were spared.
Hojilla said he was about 50 meters away from Apolinario's multi-cab.
He added that after the raid, the rebels commandeered an Isuzu elf owned by Dole Stanfilco, which they used as get-away vehicle as they exited to Barangay Baynosa in nearby Tulunan, North Cotabato.
Hojilla hinted that extortion was behind the attack.
This was the third attack launched by the communist rebels against Dole Stanfilco since March this year when they torched an 18-wheeler truck in Barangay Kisante, Makilala, and a mobile packing plant in Barangay Luvimin in Kidapawan City.
The company still refuses to pay revolutionary taxes to the NPA, said Hojilla.
Also, Hojilla said the attack could be a diversion of the rebels' original plan.
Two days before the visit of President Arroyo in a rubber farm owned by the Sandique family in Barangay Poblacion, Hojilla said they received information that the rebels were out to attack the Philippine National Police (PNP) station in Makilala to discredit the institution and the Provincial Government.
