After their successive attacks on police and military troops in Matanao, Davao del Sur, the New People's Army issued a statement saying their attacks were "punishment" for protecting a mining company and criminal syndicates.
Sheena Duazo, spokesperson of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said during a press conference Wednesday that they would like to put the incident “on record," adding that the case was “part of a pattern of surveillance and monitoring which many us in the progressive group have become targets of.”
Simultaneous attacks by New People's Army guerrillas on a police station and reinforcement troops resulted to the death of three police personnel and seven soldiers including a lieutenant.
The increase in power rates by distribution utilities that either operate standby power generation facilities or are buying electricity from other producers for their “peaking requirement” is not “across the board”, a director of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said.
“The Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission are useless when it comes to defending the interests and welfare of the Filipino people. In fact, these government agencies are merely being used by power companies to defend their rate hikes,” the militant group, Bayan, said in a statement emailed to news organizations.