Biggest NPA camp discovered in Abra

CAMP MELCHOR DELA CRUZ, Gamu, Isabela – The Army discovered yesterday what is believed to be the biggest camp of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Abra.

Major Gen. Rodrigo Maclang, commanding general of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division based here, said that his men from the 41st Infantry Battalion were pursuing armed groups when they chanced upon the sprawling but abandoned camp in remote sitio Pacoc, Barangay Talampac in Lacub, Abra.

The camp, Maclang said, is believed to be the provincial headquarters of the provincial party committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Abra, which, aside from political armed groups, is still known to be a NPA-infested area.

The huge communist enclave, the Army said, includes 24 huts, a clinic, a mess hall, a training ground and a basketball court, as well as armory and radio and computer rooms.

Aside from high-powered firearms and ammunitions, subversive documents, medical supplies and equipment, computer accessories and radio equipment were also seized in the NPA camp.

Earlier, a skirmish between Army troops and NPA rebels led to the discovery of an arms cache in a remote village in Ilocos Sur province.