FORT MAGSAYSAY, Nueva Ecija -- Relentless focused military operations and continuous conduct of community support program by government instrumentalities in Central Luzon resulted in a series of encounters, recovery of various war materials and massive surrender of members and supporters of the New People's Army (NPA).
For the month of November, recovered war materials of the maneuver units consisting of the 91st Infantry Battalion, 69th Infantry Battalion, 48th Infantry Battalion and 84th Infantry Battalion totaled to 19 firearms.
"Recovered firearms include eight M16, one M14, one Carbine, three caliber .45, two Magnum 22, one caliber 22 sub-machine gun, one caliber .38 and two homemade pistol, two improvised explosive devices, one hand grenade and five detonating cords," 703rd Infantry Brigade Commander Colonel Andrew Costelo said.
Other materials such as ammunition, magazines, gadgets, bag packs, radios antennae, assorted medical supplies, rice containers, food stuffs, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-NPA flags and subversive documents were also recovered from the encounter site by the operating troops.
"Also for November, three members of NPA were killed during encounters, five were captured and number of surrenderers reached 600 regular members and supporters. Among the biggest include the 133 supporters under Malayang Aniban ng mga Magsasaka sa Manggang Marikit, Bagong Barrio at Yuson in Nueva Ecija," Costelo added.
"In just a short period of time, we were able to accomplish more than what we expected or targeted. I am truly overwhelmed with the conquest of our operating troops on the ground conducting focused military operations who are very eager to pursue our mandate to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and we will engage, empower all sectors of society to be free and resistant to communist terrorist operations and infiltrations," Costelo said.
For his part, 7th Infantry Division Commander Major General Lenard Agustin
lauded the troops for a job well done.
"We will be persistent with our focused military operations to ensure the safety of our people. The 7th Infantry Division, as your partners for peace and development, will remain dedicated in the performance of its duty and reinforce the realization of good governance, peace and sustainable development to significantly contribute to the total eradication of the Local Communist Armed Conflict by 2020," he said. (PIA)