Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Military overruns Sparu training camp
THE Philippine Army’s 3rd Special Forces Battalion discovered Sunday afternoon a new training camp of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) Sparu unit in Monkayo, Compostela Valley.
Lieutenant Colonel Rolando Bautista, spokesman of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said the soldiers discovered the 600x800 meters wide rebel camp at the vicinity of Sitio Kalinugan, Barangay Casoon around 2 p.m. of October 19.
The training camp is said to be under the Guerilla Front 3 but was utilized by GF 33 in conducting Sparu training. It was also being used by GF 20 for the conduct of its lectures to new recruits from Compostela Valley and nearby Agusan provinces.
Bautista said the camp was also utilized as venue for the plenum of the NPA.
However, no rebels were found in the said camp as they had already left the encampment after an encounter in the same barangay Saturday.
The rebel camp could accommodate 100 NPA rebels. It was bounded by hills with about 20 foxholes that served as the rebels’ observation posts as well as for their fields of fire.
Empty boxes of ammos, lecture paraphernalia, propaganda materials and other subversive documents with high intelligence value were recovered by the military in the said camp.
Trails of blood were also seen in the area, indicating that the rebels suffered some casualties in the earlier encounter.
Close air support was provided by OV-10 aircraft from the Philippine Air Force to soften the enemy position. Army's 1001st Brigade commander Colonel Allan Luga also redeployed additional troops in the area to block the rebels’ route of withdrawal. (BOT)
