Clash with the Maoists
October 7, 2011
Troops clashed with communist rebels in the southern Philippines on Thursday amid a hunt for hundreds of guerrillas who attacked three nickel mining complexes, alarming the local mining industry.
Military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos said an army soldier was killed and three others wounded in the gun battle near Esperanza town in southern Agusan del Sur province. The troops captured a New People's Army encampment and 12 assault rifles and wounded several of the rebels.
It was not immediately clear if the guerrillas were among the more than 200 rebels who laid siege on three nickel mining complexes on Monday in Claver town in nearby Surigao del Sur province.
Ongoing attacks of the Maoists
The attack on three mines on southern Mindanao Island on Monday, damaged about 50 percent of equipment at Taganito - the biggest of four mines operated by the country's largest nickel producer Nickel Asia Corporation. The corporation was forced to temporarily shut down operations after the attack.
Jorge Madlos, spokesman of the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the communist rebels in Mindanao, said in a statement that the attack on three mines in Surigao del Norte would serve as a warning to other companies violating rebel policies. He added that "The revolutionary movement will not hesitate to severely punish other mining companies if they continuously disregard these policies."
"We are serious and determined to protect our patrimony, sovereignty and general welfare and interests of the people and the environment. We will use the full potential of the revolutionary movement to carry out these just policies," Madlos warned.
In the past, the rebels have attacked the $5.9 billion Tampakan project in South Cotabato province, considered Southeast Asia's largest undeveloped copper-gold prospect.
The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines accused the rebels of using environmental concern as an excuse to extort money from large-scale mining operations in the country.
Agencies: Reuters, AP (mj)
Editor: Grahame Lucas