AROUND 15 suspected communist guerillas disarmed five security personnel of Minergy Coal Power Plant on their way to their outpost in a quarry site in Quezon Heights, Balingasag, Misamis Oriental, early Monday, August 19.
Police said the suspects who were believed to be members of Guerilla Front 4B, Sub-Regional Command 1 (SRC), North Central Mindanao Regional Command (NCMRC), blocked the guards at gunpoint and forcibly took five AK47 rifles issued to them.
Lieutenant Princess Joy Enriguez, spokesperson of the Misamis Oriental Provincial Police Office, said the New People's Army (NPA) fighters then withdrew and ran toward Gingoog City area.
Enriquez said the police are still investigating the incident.
Lieutenant Colonel Roy Anthony Derilo, commander of the army's 58th Infantry Battalion (58IB), said the NPA combatants may have been targeting the company to ask for a revolutionary tax.
"Duda namin mamerwisyo ni sila ug pangayoan sa revolutionary tax ang minergy," Derilo said, adding that the company should not give in to their demands.
Derilo said the victims can file robbery cases against the perpetrators.
The military said the incident is a clear violation of humanitarian law for "deliberate attack on a civilian compound" and for taking civilian properties.
"The people they attacked are civilians who have no direct participation in the insurgency conflict because they are plain civilian security guards. The NPA's did not distinguish civilians from combatants, which is a clear disrespect to humanitarian law," the military said.
"A case of violation of RA 9851, the domestic law pertaining to International Humanitarian Law is now being established, to be filed against known national and local leaders of the CPP, NPA and the NDF," the military added.