KIDAPAWAN
CITY --- Government forces on Wednesday (June 13) found two abandoned training
camps of communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in the hinterlands of Magpet,
North Cotabato.
In
a statement released last 5 June 14, the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion (IB)
said it believes the adjoining rebel camps in mountainous Barangay Don Panaca
used to be a hiding place for kidnapped police and soldiers in North Cotabato.
One
of the two camps found by soldiers pursuing communist rebels could accommodate
more than 100 individuals at one given time, the military said.
Soldiers
belonging to the 19th IB Alpha Company, led by 1Lt. Prolen Bonacua, have
already secured the abandoned NPA camps, where they recovered combat uniforms,
assorted ammunition, food supplies, and medical kits in the bunkers.
Lt.
Col. Ehrlich Noel Paraso, acting commanding officer of 19th IB, said it
appeared that the rebels who were fleeing sustained huge casualties from
military operations at the foot of Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak.
“They
are evading Army offensives, they no longer have the peoples’ support,” Paraso
was quoted in the statement as saying.
More
than 50 NPAs in North Cotabato voluntarily yielded to the 19th and 39th IBs
since January this year with the help of local government units. (Edwin
Fernandez, PNA – Cotabato/MINDANAO EXPOSE’)
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