Police nab two rebels attempting to deliver guns

SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines - The police filed Tuesday morning criminal charges against two members of the New People’s Army caught  transporting four AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles to the hinterland T’boli town in the province.

The cashiered NPAs, Ariel Ariano and Alexander Galera,  were riding a red Mitsubishi Lancer, bearing license plates PGF 172, when they were intercepted by policemen and soldiers at the border of South Cotabato’s T’boli and Surallah towns.

Lt. Col. Shalimar Imperial, commanding officer of the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion, said the two men first attempted to escape by turning their car around when they noticed a road block ahead manned by soldiers and policemen from the 12th Regional Public Safety Battalion.

The 27th IB combatants and policemen gave chase and eventually cornered the suspects  in Barangay Sinolon in T’boli, where they turned themselves in, yielding the Russian-made firearms.

Imperial said they learned of the suspects' plan to bring the weapons to T’boli from tipsters who shared information on condition of anonymity.

Imperial said members of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency in Region 12 helped carry out the entrapment of Ariano, of Koronadal City, and Galera, who hails from Tulunan town in North Cotabato.

Imperial said they immediately turned over the duo to the T’boli municipal police.

Local officials said they have been receiving tips that Ariano and Galera, who had confessed to their being members of the NPA, were to deliver the four AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles to an NPA commander operating in the hinterland boundary of T’boli and Surallah.

The two suspects have been charged by the T’boli municipal police with illegal possession of firearms and violation of the gun ban being imposed by the Commission on Elections, which will be implemented until next week.