Troops seize firearms, IED materials from NPA hideout

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  --- Soldiers seized firearms and materials for improvised explosives as they raided Friday a hideout of the New People’s Army in President Roxas town in the province.

But two rebel ordnance experts managed to escape, bringing with them newly-assembled roadside bombs when they noticed the approaching combatants of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion.

Lt. Col. Nilo Vinluan, commanding officer of the 57th IB, said the raid at the NPA’s safehouse in Barangay New Sebu, a secluded district in President Roxas, was carried out with the help of barangay folks.

A ranking leader of the NPA in the province, Commander Bobby, who was one of the targets in the raid, had also escaped even before soldiers arrived at the hideout.

Vinluan said soldiers recovered from the NPA hideout subversive documents, and a list of businessmen the rebels mulct money from.

The NPAs have been using IEDs to intimidate villagers and business establishments and force them into paying “protection money”.