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Thursday, March 25, 2004
2 NPA camps in Sultan Kudarat captured
By Bong S. Sarmiento
KORONADAL CITY -- Government troops have captured two communist rebel camps in the hinterlands of Sultan Kudarat province, with one of them suspected to be an explosive-making factory of the New People's Army (NPA), an army commander confirmed Wednesday.
Colonel Rolando Picar, 66th Infantry Battalion commander, said elements under the Alpha Company headed by Lt. Donald Hugo separately captured the NPA camps in a span of two days in Columbio town, Sultan Kudarat.
"The NPA camps fell to the government's hand a few days ago after concerned residents tipped us about the massing of a large group of armed men in the area," Picar said in a cellular phone interview.
Picar said the camps were captured without a gunfight "because the rebels abandoned their lairs upon sensing that a sizeable number of government troops have launched a military operation in the area as a result of information given by residents there."
The first camp to fall to the military was located in Sitio Datal Lanao in Barangay Sinapulan.
It could reportedly accommodate about 60 rebels, according to Picar.
The second NPA camp was captured the following day in sitio Bantung, also in barangay Sinapulan, he added.
Picar said the second camp appears to be an explosive-making factory of the rebels with the discovery of half a sack of circular galvanized iron sheets, four rocket-propelled grenade ammunitions and several "indigenous bomb-making ingredients".
Both camps are replete with kitchen areas that could each feed a sizeable number of people, he added.
Citing residents' accounts, Picar said Emmanuel Fernandez, alias Kumander Bobong, recently used the camps to convene about 150 NPA rebels.
Fernandez, who is the commander of the Main Regional Guerrilla Unit-Far South Mindanao Region, was reportedly consolidating the ranks of the communist rebels in the area.
At the moment, Picar said that combined military efforts from the 604th, 601st and 602nd Infantry Brigades are underway to neutralize the rebel forces.
(March 25, 2004 issue)
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