Rebels claim burning of trucks in Toboso

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The Roselyn Jean Pelle Command (RJPC) Northern Negros Guerilla Front of the New People’s Army (NPA) admitted to burning trucks of a landowner in Toboso, Negros Occidental on Dec. 14, 2022.

In a statement released to the media last Friday, RJPC-NPA spokesperson Cecil Estrella said the sanction against the landowner was witnessed by almost a hundred sugar workers at Sitio Proper, Barangay Tabun-ac last Wednesday.

At least eight unidentified armed men arrived and gathered the workers in one area before they burned the machines of the two trucks, leaving P600,000 in damages.

The rebel group, however, noted that they are not interested in subjecting the landowner’s business operation to collection of revolutionary tax, but were only acting on alleged complaints on labor issues, land disputes, and his counter-revolutionary nature.

The group said the burning was conducted for the alleged failure of the landowner to give just wages to the workers, for using armed goons for threat and intimidation, and for land grabbing, among others.

The action is also a call for sugar workers to fight back against exploitation and for residents to fight back against militarization and rights abuses, Estrella stressed.