Troops discover rebel camp

ILOILO CITY — Government troops have taken into custody two persons suspected to be supporters of the New People’s Army (NPA) after they discovered an abandoned rebel camp in a remote part of Central Panay Island.

Elements of the 33rd Reconnaissance Company under Lt. Abelardo Mutya discovered the abandoned camp, which was reportedly as big as two basketball courts, during clearing operations in Sitio Balikan, Barangay Garangan, Calinog town last June 25.

In a phone interview, Major Lyndon Sollesta, information officer of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, described the base as ‘well-fortified with running trenches and bunkers,’ and could accommodate 30 to 50 persons.

There were makeshift huts too, he added.

Sollesta said the rebels may have been using the base for at least one month as indicated by tracks on the grass and rusting tin cans, among other factors.

Sollesta added that the camp, which lies along what he calls the ‘rebel’s highway,’ may have been also used as a jump off or consolidation point of the rebels against targets in the towns of Calinog and Lambunao in Iloilo, and Tapaz in Capiz.

Garangan is located 25 kilometers from the Calinog town proper, which is about 50 kilometers from Iloilo City.

Sollesta did not disclose the names of the two persons now undergoing interrogation, but he said two homemade shotguns were recovered from them.

For now, he said, they are trying to establish whether the two persons were members of a militia belonging to the NPA as people in the uplands often keep such firearms for protection.