Gunmen torch S. Cotabato banana plantation water tankers

KORONADAL CITY - Police and military authorities here have launched manhunt against five armed men who torched three water tankers working on a banana plantation in Surallah, South Cotabato Thursday night, police said.Chief Inspector Joel Fuerte, Surallah town police chief, told DXOM-AM Radyo Bida Friday that the suspects arrived in the stockyard of Sumifru Banana Plantation in Purok Lipunan,Barangay Lamian at about 10:30 p.m. The armed men ordered the drivers to leave and poured gasoline then set the units on fire, Fuerte said, adding the drivers were unharmed.After the incident, the suspect fled.Nobody claimed responsibility for the harassment but police investigators are looking at possible hands of the New Peoples Army operating in Surallah.The NPAs were known to be mulcting multinational firms in South Cotabato and subjected equipment and workersto harassment when the demand was ignored.The equipment were owned by JE Trucking Services hired by Sumifru for watering the plantation.