Communist rebels burn Philippine airport equipment

MANILA, Oct 8 (Reuters) Communist rebels in the Philippines burned 30 million pesos worth of equipment being used by Korean and Japanese contractors to build an international airport in a central region, the military and police said.

The rebels belonging to the New People's Army (NPA) also took away three shotguns, 18 pistols and eight handheld radios from security guards at the construction site in Silay City.

''The attack was apparently because of the refusal of the contractors to pay revolutionary taxes,'' Colonel Felicisimo Budiongan, head of the army in Negros Occidental province, told reporters.

He said the contractors of the 4.3-billion peso airport, one of the priority projects of the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, had received extortion letters allegedly from the NPA.

Police said 50 armed men went to the construction site early today and were allowed inside the premises after claiming they were members of the regional police force.

Once inside, the group disarmed the security guards.

Celestino Guara, Silay City police head, said the rebels burned computerised equipment used in paving the runway and a power generator.

Active in 69 of 79 provinces in the Philippines, the communists have been waging a protracted war 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 to help persuade the United States and some Western European states to remove the NPA from terrorism blacklists.

REUTERS PB RN1507