Hidden NPA weapons found in South Cotabato

COTABATO CITY — Soldiers seized assault rifles and components for powerful improvised explosive devices (IEDs) allegedly owned by members of the reportedly weakened New People’s Army, during an operation in T’boli, South Cotabato on Saturday, June 14.

Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Tuesday, June 17, that the cache were buried in a secluded area in Barangay Laconon in T’boli, a hinterland town in South Cotabato that has just been virtually cleared from NPA presence by local officials, the police and the military.

The operation that led to the recovery of the three M16 assault rifles, materials for IEDs and other combat supplies was jointly carried out by combined troops of the 37th and 105th Infantry Battalions, both under the 6th ID's 603rd Infantry Brigade.

Brig. Gen. Michael Santos, commander of the 603rd Infantry Brigade, said it was the former NPAs in T’boli, who had surrendered to the government in recent months, who helped their troops locate the spot where the weapons were hidden by their erstwhile comrades who had fled owing to the extensive cooperation now of barangay officials in the municipality in the 6th ID’s anti-NPA operations.

More than 300 NPAs had surrendered to units of the 6th ID in different towns and cities in Central Mindanao in the past three years, according to officials of the multi-sector Regional Development Council 12, whose chairperson is Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, a staunch supporter the division’s local reconciliation program for members of the group.