By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Suspected insurgents from the New People’s Army (NPA) torched down P16 million worth of heavy equipment in Hacienda Vista Alegre, Barangay E. Lopez in Negros Occidental’s Silay City yesterday morning.

Silay City police investigation showed that at around 5:00 a.m. caretaker Randy Bylon saw that three of the backhoes parked at the hacienda had been totally gutted.

The three units of heavy equipment include a Caterpillar 520 backhoe worth P7.2 million and a Liugong backhoe worth P4.2 million owned by a certain Ryan Villan, and another Liugong backhoe worth P5.2 million owned by Barangay Lantad captain Arnie Benedicto.

Villan also reported to the police that the alleged NPA rebels placed a checkpoint at a road connecting to the hacienda.

The NPA had been linked to several cases of equipment burning in Negros in the past.

In 2018, the rebels torched P120 million worth of heavy equipment and generator sets owned by a mining firm in the town of Ayungon in Negros Oriental, with the insurgents claiming the attack stemmed over the firm’s alleged destruction of the environment.

Both army and police that time believed the attack was not connected to the destruction of the environment, but due to the firm’s failure to give in to the extortion demands of the communist insurgents.

As of this writing, officers of the Silay City Police Station are still investigating the incident./DGB, WDJ