About 50 New People’s Army rebels simultaneously raided and burned two sugarcane transloading stations, as well as their heavy equipment in Toboso, Negros Occidental, Sunday night, causing damage  estimated at P4.8 million, the police and military said yesterday.

 Burned at the transloading stations of Victorias Milling Co. and Lopez Sugar Corp. in Brgy. San Jose, Toboso, were four prime movers with trailers, two cranes, a 10-wheeler truck, scale house, two generator sets, and a fuel tank with its pumps.

Col. Honorato de los Reyes, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, yesterday said the simultaneous raids and destruction of properties may have something to do with the rebel extortion activities, or the insurgents wanted to divert the attention of soldiers who are hunting them down in the mountains.

VMC placed the estimated damage to their destroyed properties at P4 million, while the Lopez Sugar Corp. reported P850,000 in damages, initial investigations of the Toboso police showed.

Senior Inspector Nestor Tuadles, Toboso police chief, said the withdrawing rebel raiders who also fired their weapons, carted away an ICOM radio base of the VMC transloading station, but spared the lives of a watchman and a caretaker.

The two transloading stations are  located along the national highway, and eight kilometers away from the poblacion of Toboso, Negros Occidental.

Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, provincial police director, who met with Supt. Remus Zacharias Canieso and Lt. Col. Henry Dar, 15th Infantry Battalion commander, said they are studying the possibility of deploying policemen or military personnel in transloading stations, to prevent a similar occurrence. 

Franco said he  believes that the destruction of properties owned by the two sugar centrals may be connected to the forced taxation activities of the CPP-NPA in northern Negros.

The rebels may have also been dislocated by the ongoing military operations in the mountains,   prompting them to seek refuge in the lowlands De los Reyes said.

The rebel raiders were reported to have been led by Ka Ivan and Ka Russel of the Preparatory Front Party Committee 6 of the Komiteng Rehiyonal- Negros.*GPB

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