Philippine communist rebels vow attacks on mines

MANILA, May 22 (Reuters) Philippine communist rebels vowed today to step up attacks on mining firms and troops guarding them in the northern mountainous area of Kalinga, urging tribal communities to defend their ancestral land.

The Maoist-led New People's Army (NPA), fighting one of the world's oldest communist insurgencies, has attacked three mining companies since last month.

The rebels burned the facilities and some equipment of an Australian-controlled copper and gold mining company in the north and raided two local firms, including Heritage Resources Development Corp, on the southern island of Mindanao.

With the Philippines having up to 1 trillion dollars in estimated mineral wealth, the government is trying to revive mining to bring in foreign investment, cut debt and reduce poverty.

But many foreign firms have been put off by political turmoil, graft, communist and Muslim insurgencies, and opposition from indigenous groups and influential Catholic bishops.

''The unhampered mining activities in Kalinga will destroy the environment and deprive the indigenous people of their resources through deception,'' Daniel Gibon, the NPA spokesman in the northern Cordillera region, said in a statement.

Among the targets in Kalinga that the NPA vowed to hit were mines run by Cordillera Exploration Inc, Wolfland Resources Inc and Makikala Mining Co. Inc, which has projects in three towns.

The Philippines, Washington's closest security partner in Southeast Asia, has labelled the NPA as its top security threat, ahead of Muslim rebels in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.

Active in 69 of 79 provinces, the communists have been waging a protracted rebellion since the late 1960s that has killed more than 40,000 people and stunted investment and tourism.

Peace talks, brokered by Norway, stalled in 2004 when Manila refused the help persuade the United States and some Western European states to remove the NPA from terrorism blacklists.

REUTERS PG PM1600