NPA, two ex-workers tagged in Victory bus torching
Two former employees of Victory Liner and the communist New People’s Army (NPA) are at the center of a police investigation of a recent attack on the bus firm’s garage in Quezon City.
Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District, said the two dismissed employees filed their cases only last February and March and could have the motive for last Wednesday’s attack.
However, a senior police officer involved in the investigation said they are looking into the possibility that communist rebels infiltrated the bus firm’s labor union and could have supported the attack.
He said dismissed employees are holding pickets at the Victory Liner terminal in Tarlac, a reported stronghold of NPA guerrillas.
He said it is a given that most, if not all, left-leaning labor groups give money to the NPA in exchange for protecting their members.
The senior police officer said that even if dismissed workers are linked to the attack, they could not have done it by themselves. He noted that 10 armed men, in two vehicles, barged into the Victory Liner garage before midnight Wednesday and disarmed the lone security guard on duty.
Four of the suspects ordered the guard and several bus personnel to remove their personal possessions from the buses, and the rest of the armed men set the vehicles on fire using two pails of paint thinner.
According to Mabanag, the labor cases filed by the two former workers earlier this year are preceded only by a case that was filed way back in 2006.
"So we’re now asking the NLRC (National Labor Relations Commission) to provide us a copy of the said case for us to know the complaints of these two (former) employees," Mabanag told The STAR in an interview.
These two cases are among the eight pending labor cases filed against the management, which Mabanag earlier said was the "closest link" to the attack. He does not believe the assault could be the handiwork of communist rebels.
While refusing to divulge the identities of the two former employees, Mabanag said they are residents of Malabon and are natives of Iba and Botolan towns in Zambales.
Coincidentally, a similar attack was recorded in Zambales in early 2000 involving another Victory Liner bus.
Citing information from Zambales provincial police director Senior Superintendent Roland Felix, a bus bound for Botolan was blocked by armed men, who ordered the passengers to get off the bus before setting the vehicle on fire.
"So we’re looking into these previous cases, because if these former employees really have grievances against the company, the percentage (of them getting back at the management) is high... They’re angry and that is manifested in these actions," Mabanag noted.
"But the company doesn’t seem to be bothered by it because they always say the affected buses are covered by insurance claims," he added.
Mabanag also dismissed insinuations that Wednesday night’s attack could only be aimed at collecting insurance claims for the firm’s old buses.
He said if that were the case, the attackers should have focused only on old buses and not tried to damage the other buses parked in the garage.
Mabanag noted that during the attack last Wednesday, the attackers poured paint thinner leading to the newer buses, thinking these would also be totally burned after an old bus was set on fire.
Authorities, however, soon arrived and put out the fire a few minutes later. By JAIME LAUDE and REINIR PADUA - The Philippine Star
Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District, said the two dismissed employees filed their cases only last February and March and could have the motive for last Wednesday’s attack.
However, a senior police officer involved in the investigation said they are looking into the possibility that communist rebels infiltrated the bus firm’s labor union and could have supported the attack.
He said dismissed employees are holding pickets at the Victory Liner terminal in Tarlac, a reported stronghold of NPA guerrillas.
He said it is a given that most, if not all, left-leaning labor groups give money to the NPA in exchange for protecting their members.
The senior police officer said that even if dismissed workers are linked to the attack, they could not have done it by themselves. He noted that 10 armed men, in two vehicles, barged into the Victory Liner garage before midnight Wednesday and disarmed the lone security guard on duty.
Four of the suspects ordered the guard and several bus personnel to remove their personal possessions from the buses, and the rest of the armed men set the vehicles on fire using two pails of paint thinner.
According to Mabanag, the labor cases filed by the two former workers earlier this year are preceded only by a case that was filed way back in 2006.
"So we’re now asking the NLRC (National Labor Relations Commission) to provide us a copy of the said case for us to know the complaints of these two (former) employees," Mabanag told The STAR in an interview.
These two cases are among the eight pending labor cases filed against the management, which Mabanag earlier said was the "closest link" to the attack. He does not believe the assault could be the handiwork of communist rebels.
While refusing to divulge the identities of the two former employees, Mabanag said they are residents of Malabon and are natives of Iba and Botolan towns in Zambales.
Coincidentally, a similar attack was recorded in Zambales in early 2000 involving another Victory Liner bus.
Citing information from Zambales provincial police director Senior Superintendent Roland Felix, a bus bound for Botolan was blocked by armed men, who ordered the passengers to get off the bus before setting the vehicle on fire.
"So we’re looking into these previous cases, because if these former employees really have grievances against the company, the percentage (of them getting back at the management) is high... They’re angry and that is manifested in these actions," Mabanag noted.
"But the company doesn’t seem to be bothered by it because they always say the affected buses are covered by insurance claims," he added.
Mabanag also dismissed insinuations that Wednesday night’s attack could only be aimed at collecting insurance claims for the firm’s old buses.
He said if that were the case, the attackers should have focused only on old buses and not tried to damage the other buses parked in the garage.
Mabanag noted that during the attack last Wednesday, the attackers poured paint thinner leading to the newer buses, thinking these would also be totally burned after an old bus was set on fire.
Authorities, however, soon arrived and put out the fire a few minutes later. By JAIME LAUDE and REINIR PADUA - The Philippine Star
Labels: bus, labor, npa, Victory Liner
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