By Florante S. Solmerin | Posted on July 07, 2012 | 12:01am
The alleged hostage-taking of three executives of VPO Mining in Rosario town in Agusan del Sur arose from business rivalry rather than a communist plot, a source said on Friday.
On Thursday, Maj. Eugenio Julio Osias IV, spokesman of the 4th Infantry Division, said about 30 alleged National Pepole’s Army rebels took Christopher Ocite, VPO operations manager, his assistant Gani Altaya and company security chief Joel Jayuma.
Supt. Martin Gamba, spokesman of the Caraga police, said the three were abducted at the VPO compound in Barangay Bayugan 3.
But the source expressed about the alleged P25-million ransom demanded for their release, noting that the incident was meant to divert the logging controversy to the rebel problem in the province.
The source said Osias, when reached through his mobile phone had admitted a demand for firearms in which 70 pieces were taken from the company by the armed men without any mention of money.
Meanwhile, the reported attack on a police- and military-escorted group of provincial officials on the way to Katipunan in Veruela town was likewise “trumped up” the source said.
Malacanang last week directed the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force to prosecute all those involved in illegal logging.
In his June 26 memorandum, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa ordered a speedy action against any official or employee “who have been remiss or negligent in their duties, or may have abetted the commission of illegal logging in their regions.”
President Benigno Aquino III was given a report in May indicating that local executives and regional officials of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples-Ancestral Domain Office had conspired with illegal loggers and miners to abuse the 51,000-hectare Manobo Agroforestation Complex in Agusan del Sur. source
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