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BY BOY RYAN ZABAL and RUBY SILUBRICO
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Wednesday, May 3, 2017
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KALIBO, Aklan – Who burned two heavy equipment in the municipality of Banga yesterday?
Authorities have yet to find out as of press time.
Owned by the BSP and Company, Inc., the charred vibrator roller, locally known as pison, and grader were worth around P7.7 million, according to Engr. George Leba, project manager for Aklan.
The heavy equipment were parked on Banga-Libacao provincial road in Sitio Ilawod, Barangay Daguitan, Banga, some 20 kilometers southwest of this capital town.
They were being used for the paving of the provincial road from Barangay Polo, Banga to the Libacao-Banga boundary.
The P148-million road project was being funded by the World Bank under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) with the Department of Agriculture and the provincial government of Aklan.
Two motorcycle-riding men stopped over in the area around 1:35 a.m. and set the heavy equipment on fire, initial police investigation showed.
Police found pieces of firewood soaked in paint near the heavy equipment.
The grader was destroyed, while the vibrator roller was partially burned, they said.
Bureau of Fire Protection personnel responded and quelled the blaze, said Senior Superintendent Lope Manlapaz, provincial police chief.
The Aklan Police Provincial Office cannot point to any suspect.
“Right now we have no idea who did it or what the motive was,” Manlapaz said.
Investigation was proving to be a challenge, too.
“No witness could identify the suspects. All they could tell was that the incident happened before dawn,” he said.
Were the rebels behind it? Manlapaz could not say for certain.
“I asked the (BSP and Company, Inc.) management if may natanggap silang extortion letter from the rebels,” he said. “Wala naman silang may natanggap.”
The BSP and Company, Inc. was just as puzzled.
They have not had any enemy since operating in the province in 2013, Leba stressed.
“Wala kaming natatanggap na pananakot at maganda naman ang samahan ng mga constructors dito,” said the project manager. “Nagtataka kami kung bakit nangyari itong panununog ng mga heavy equipment.”
The BSP and Company, Inc. was set to pave the Pampango-Rosal-Luctuga-Manika farm-to-market roads and four bridges in Libacao town — also under the PRDP — this year.
Lieutenant Colonel Leomar Jose Doctolero, commander of the Philippine Army’s 12th Infantry Battalion based in Barangay Libas, Banga, said they will help the police in identifying the suspects and determining the motive.
Doctolero also appealed to the public with possible relevant information to cooperate in the investigation. He stressed that they cannot make speculations until they have made progress in their probe.
He stressed, however, that Aklan remains insurgency-free./PN
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