The Philippine Territory

At least six communist rebels were believed killed in air and ground assaults launched by the military in North Cotabato against New Peoples Army (NPA) rebels who torched a rubber processing plant.

Quoting community leaders, 1st Lt. Nasurallah Sema, spokesman of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, said village officials claimed the rebels had more than six fallen comrades whom they carry as they fled by nightfall Wednesday.

Villagers in Talun-Talunan, Makilala, North Cotabato were obviously mad at communist rebels who torched the Standard Rubber Development Corporation (Standeco) rubber processing plant Sunday night which cost P20 million and rendered more than 700 rubber workers jobless.

It was the worst NPA attacks in North Cotabato’s multinational firms who provided employment to the locals.
North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said the farm workers displaced by the NPA attack have no way but let their children stop from their schooling since they have no other source of income, or any alternative livelihood needed to sustain their families.

“The real victims of the atrocity were the families, the children of the affected workers,” said Mendoza.
Sema said the military launched air and ground assaults against 50 guerrillas sighted in the village of Kabilao, also in Makilala.
A soldier was killed when the NPA set off a roadside land mine near Barangay Kabilao.

”We have information they suffered heavy casualties from the two day punitive action,” Sema said, adding that the masses are no longer supporting the NPA.
In a statement, the NPA claimed responsibility for the burning of rubber plant.

The Makilala municipal peace and order council members have branded the burning of the rubber processing factory in Barangay Talun-Talunan as a “crime against humanity,” something they have never experienced before.
Source:  http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid&nid=2&rid=562553