Another YBL bus torched in South Cotabato
1,150
By:
Edwin Fernandez
A 35-seater YBL air conditioned bus after it was set on fire by suspected NPA in Sto. Nino, South Cotabato. (contributed photo)
KORONADAL CITY –
Armed men claiming to be New Peoples Army (NPA) guerillas torched Tuesday night
another unit of Yellow Bus Lines (YBL) in Sto. Nino, South Cotabato, police
said.
Senior Supt. Franklin Alvero, South
Cotabato police director, told DXOM-AM Radyo Bida Koronadal thatthe bus with body number 7225 was from Isulan,
Sultan Kudarat and bound for Gen. Santos City, was attacked at about 6:30 p.m.
Quoting a report from Sto
Nino PNP, Alvero said the fully air conditioned bus has 17 passengers, plus driver
and bus conductor.
Two of the suspects boarded
in Isulan terminal while four others boarded at Sto Nino terminal, he said.
About five minutes after it
left the Sto Nino bus terminal, the suspects declared they were NPAs and
directed the driver to diver at a dirt road leading to the public cemetery in Purok Pioneer, Barangay Poblacion.
The site was less than a
kilometer from Sto Nino town hall and police station.
In front of the cemetery,
more armed men emerged from nowhere. The
gunmen then ordered all passengers while other gunmen doused gasoline around
the bus. As soon as all the passengers have alighted, they put on the vehicle
in flames.
It was the fourth YBL bus
torch since Nov. 13 allegedly by gunmen claiming to be communist rebels. Two
YBL units have been set on fire in Tupi, South Cotabato on Nov. 13 and
tonight.
Two more YBLbuses were also
burned by suspected NPAs in Kiamba, Sarangani and Barangay Kanapulo, Magsaysay,
Davao del Sur.
Gunmen also tried but failed
to set on fire on Nov. 27 a Husky in Barangay Bukay Pait, Tantangan, South
Cotabato.
Alvero said all the arson
incidents have the same modus operandi with the suspects posing as passengers,
declared they were NPAs, direct drivers to divert and set the unit on fire.
Other bus firms plying South
Cotabato, the Mindanao Star and Rural Bus Lines, have not been attacked by any
armed group from Nov. 13 to Dec. 13.
Alvero could not say what
really motivated the suspects to attack buses and heavy construction equipment
in the province and nearby areas. Extortion and business rivalry were among the
motives being looked into by arson probers.