Communists torch Philippine-Japan fruit company van in the southern Philippines

Manila: Suspected members of communist rebels torched the vehicle of a company owned by a joint Philippines-Japanese fruit company in the southern Philippines, a police spokesman said.

Four suspected members of the New Peoples Army (NPA), the armed wing of the 45-year old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) flagged down and set to fire the vehicle of Sumitomo Fruits Coporation at the National Highway of Kisante Village, Makilala town, North Cotabato province at 8.45 Thursday evening, Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr., spokesman of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said in a belated report at the police headquarters in suburban Quezon City.

The driver and assistants who were in the vehicle were not hurt, said Cruz.
Last week, 25 rebels burned the heavy equipment and vehicles of the same company in Compostela Valley.

The Philippine government and the communist National Democratic Front (the negotiator of the CPP-NPA) have been holding on and off peace talks since 1992.