GOVERNMENT soldiers have claimed that members of the New People's Army (NPA) burned some equipment for harvest of an agricultural firm in Don Carlos, Bukidnon, Thursday, March 14.

The military said there were armed men who identified themselves as NPA members and sowed terror at the plantation area of Davao Agriculture Ventures Company Inc. (Davco) in Barangay San Nicolas.

Accordingly, the farm workers were threatened by the NPAs as they scampered for safety after the group burned down the company's Camico 633 (pineapple harvesting equipment), and a small backhoe.

Troops from the 88th Infantry Battalion and elements of Don Carlos town police immediately responded and gathered some information from a security guard who revealed that the NPA rebels took his mobile phone.

He said the group fled towards Purok 10 of the Don Carlos road connected to Sitio Buklata, Barangay Camp 1, in Maramag town.

403rd Brigade Commander Colonel Edgardo De Leon said that the investigation is still going on.

“Since this is an attack against civilian properties, we will be submitting report to Commission on Human Rights (CHR)- Northern Mindanao and request them to investigate if the actions of the NPAs violate the International Humanitarian Law and Republic Act 9851. CHR-Northern Mindanao is the subject matter expert on IHL so we would be relying on their fact-finding investigation,” De Leon said.

However, the NPA has yet to claim responsibility on the incident.