CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro – A cache of 16 high-powered firearms and other war materiel, believed to be part of the arms’ reserve of the New People’s Army, has been discovered by Army soldiers in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro last Thursday.
According to a report furnished to The Star by 1st Lt. Frank Sayson, public information officer of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, members of the 80th Army Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Arnulfo Burgos discovered the NPA arms’ cache in Barangay Talabaan, Mamburao town at around 8 p.m. Thursday.
Responding to an information provided by a captured NPA member, identified as Noel de la Cruz alias Ka Russel, Ronel, and Merto, who was a platoon leader of “Platoon Three – Kilusang Larangan Guerilya 2,” Burgos immediately dispatched combined elements of the intelligence platoon of 80th IB led by 2nd Lt. Totoy de los Reyes, a section from the 23rd Military Intelligence Company led by 1st Lt. Eduardo Arojo and a section from Alfa Company of 80th IB led by one 2nd Lt. Sablan to search the area pinpointed by De la Cruz.
As the military group entered the area, they successfully discovered the bulk of the NPA’s cache of high-powered firearms with various war materiel and voluminous subversive documents without a firefight.
Recovered from the cache site were one M653 rifle (baby armalite), 10 M16 rifles, 2 M14 rifles, one garand rifle, one carbine, one shot gun, three ammunition bandoleers, one round of 60MM mortar, one magazine of carbine, one magazine of M16, a hand grenade and several subversive documents.
According to Sayson, the said recovery could be attributed to the military unit’s relentless civil military intelligence and combat operations.
“The unit’s sincere programs through civil military operations led to the surrender of a NPA local member Andring Layco, alias Ka Waldo, together with his M16 rifle on April 29. Layco saw the unit’s sincerity in promoting lasting peace and developmental efforts of ending insurgency in the province of Occidental Mindoro, so the latter vowed to help the unit in any means,” Sayson’s statement read.
According to the Philippine Army 2nd Division, through Layco’s help, a special intelligence operation was conducted outside the 80th IB’s area of responsibility on June 5 that yielded to the apprehension of De la Cruz, who lied low in Isabela province in Region II.
Layco and Dela Cruz were said to have admitted that they were the focal persons whom Cipriano Liabres, alias Ka Opong, the secretary of KLG 2 of the Mindoro Island Party Committee of the NPA and Communist Party of the Philippines.
The two former NPAs were entrusted by Liabres with the said arms’ cache in Occidental Mindoro. The revelation prompted government troops to conduct search operation in the area to locate the cache.
The presence of the arms’ cache only confirmed the reports “that the communist insurgents continued to lose civilian sympathy due to the series of atrocities they had conducted like extortion and sowing of fear to the civilians who did not cooperate with their movement.
The numerous firearms also showed the rebels are continuously diminishing in number due to reported desertion and internal quarrels among their ranks,” the Philippine Army stated.