BEN SERRANO
Contributing editor
BUTUAN CITY—Caraga Police Regional Director Chief Supt. Jaime Elorita MIlla has ordered relief of Tubay, Agusan del Norte Chief of Police P/Insp. Alfonso Baclayon following simultaneous raids by some sixty New People’s Army rebels in Tubay town early dawn, Dec. 22.
Baclayon will be transferred to another police station while facing an investigation, Milla said.
Initial police and military reports claimed that at about 12:15 a.m. Monday (Dec. 22), some fifty to sixty NPA rebels on board four hired passenger vans simultaneously raided Tubay Municipal Police Office, burned the Globe cell site and attacked office of the controversial San Roque Mining Incorporated (SRMI).
Caught flat footed, policemen manning Tubay Police station hid at the station’s mezzanine area while some jumped out of the window as the raiding NPA rebels disarmed cop on duty PO2 Raymond Magsagboc and took away his .9mm service pistol.
The raiders also took away the police station’s ICOM base radio, police said. Some of the NPA raiders poured gasoline at the nearby Globe cell site then torched it.
As the Tubay Police Station NPA lightning raid progresses, other group of NPA rebels more or less 30 fully armed rebels raided the office of San Roque Mining Inc. (SRMI) then took hostage the mining firm’s security chief who was used as tour guide by the raiding rebels.
The raiding rebels in green military camouflage uniforms also burned three heavy equipment owned by the mining firm, a Volvo dump truck, Komatsu backhoe and Caterpillar tractor and disarmed all security personnel in the area.
Tubay police said in their initial official report, more or less 30 communist terrorists approached the two guards on duty near the gate of the mining company and introduced themselves as RMG or Police Regional Mobile Group personnel.
The mining firm’s guards were caught off-guard when their security check point barricades were rammed by the vehicles used by the NPA rebels, police said.
Police said the raiding rebels ransacked the mining firm’s security personnel's office and took away all available firearms in sight from the security guards.
But before some fifty to sixty fully armed NPA raiders staged the almost simultaneous attacks, their comrades blocked the national highways in the vicinities of Barangays Los Angeles and Sto. Niňo, here in Butuan City and even used a Bachelor passenger bus whose tires were blasted as barricade.
The distance between these two barangays to the area of raiding incidents is about 50 kilometers more or less.
The communist rebels also set up barricade/blocking area to prevent military and police reinforcements by cutting down trees (coconut and gmelina) near Santiago, Agusan del Norte twin bridges. A regional police training camp is located in Santiago town.
The police training center also served as sub-camp of the Caraga Police Regional Mobile Group (RMG).
Other group of NPA rebels also installed checkpoints along national highway in Barangay Tagmamarkay, Tubay, Agusan del Norte and in Alegria, Surigao del Norte where an army camp is nearly located.
The headquarters of the 30th Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army is situated in Bad-as, Placer, Surigao del Norte which is just few kilometers away from Alegria town where an NPA blockade was installed.
The police report claimed soldiers from 30th IB Philippine Army engaged the NPA rebels at the checkpoint installed by the rebels.
But three were no reports on casualties neither wounded in the alleged encounter
The raiding rebels including their blocking forces then withdrew to mountainous area of Santiago and Tubay towns, all in Agusan del Norte, the police report said.
The regional office here of the Philippine National Police said the target in the series of raids by the NPA guerillas was the mining firm allegedly due to “forced taxation”
But S.R. Metals Mining Company spokesperson former Butuan City Councilor Ryan Anthony Culima claimed otherwise, saying it was the company’s retrenchment of workers that may have triggered the raid.
Mamanwa and Manobo tribesmen who claim ownership of the ancestral lands in Tubay town have complained that for two years now after they signed an agreement that they would receive one percent royalty fees from S.R. Metals Incorported or SRMI, they still have not been given any amount by the mining firm.
Meanwhile, Police Senior Supt. Nestor Monton Fajura- Plans and Operations Division Chief of the Caraga Police today claimed they already have lead on who among members and leaders of the NPA/CPP/NDF Northeastern Mindanao Regional Front Committee 16-A participated in the daring raids
Fajura claimed charges will be filed against them.
Earlier, NPA spokesperson Ka Maria Malaya admitted in a press statement that the almost simultaneous raids were carried out by her colleagues to punish mining firm S.R. Metals and alleged corruption of he municipal and provincial government.
Tubay Municipal Police Station touted as the most fortified and heavily guarded due to the presence of mining firm, S.R. Metals Mining Incorporated is the fourth municipal police station here in Caraga Region raided by the NPA rebels and the ninth since 2001.