BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Three units of heavy equipment were burned by still unidentified suspects at about 12:30 a.m. yesterday at a quarry area in Hacienda Vista Alegre, Brgy. E Lopez, Silay City in Negros Occidental.
Burned were a Caterpilar 520 backhoe and two units of Liugong, owned by Arnie Benedicto of Brgy. Lantad, Silay City, and Ryan Villan of Bacolod City, the police said.
The police said the heavy equipment were rented by kagawad Ramy Bilandres, and the estimated damage was placed at P16 million.
A certain Randy Baylon, caretaker of Hacienda Vista Alegre, discovered the burned heavy equipment.
Villan, who is the manager of the hacienda, reported to the police that he discovered that a road going to the hacienda had several signages of a CPP-NPA checkpoint.
However, there were reports also that the suspects behind the arson incident created a scenario to blame the incident on the New People’s Army, as indicated by the recovery of a CPP flag, a pair of combat boots, and an NPA checkpoint signage, the police said. The police is determining whether the incident was due to personal grudges, or business related.*
