Phil. Daily Inquirer, Oct. 18, 2005
TARLAC CITY -- The provincial office of the party-list group Bayan Muna in Tarlac was burned by at least 12 armed men on Tuesday morning, police said.
Reports said the men, who were armed with Armalite rifles, barged into the Bayan Muna office in Sitio (sub-village) Buno, Barangay (village) Matatalaib in this city at 1 a.m. Tuesday and set it on fire.
Only the front part of the two-room bungalow that Bayan Muna has been renting was burned as residents in the area immediately put out the fire.
Roman Polintan, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chairman in Central Luzon, said soldiers under Major General Jovito Palparan, chief of the Army's 7th Infantry Division, were suspected to be behind the incident.
The burning happened just two days after Florante Collantes, Bayan Muna secretary general in Tarlac, was shot dead on Saturday in Camiling town.
But Palparan denied any hand in the incidents.
"Bayan Muna has declared me and the military as their enemies but in fact they have created a number of enemies in different sectors of our society. Also [its] relationship with the New People's Army is not a secret and the NPA has killed and hurt and destroyed people's lives and properties," he said.
