AFP takes control of NPA training site in Bukidnon

CAMP BANCASI, Butuan City – A few days after its forces discovered a bomb factory of the New People’s Army (NPA), the military reported that it has taken control Sunday of an abandoned training facility allegedly being used by the insurgents in a hinterland village in Bukidnon, a spot report received at the advance command post (ACP) of the Army’s Northeastern and Northern Mindanao Fourth Infantry (Diamond) Division (4th ID) here yesterday stated.

A flash report received here from the Eighth Infantry Battallion (8th IB) 4th ID here also said that the seized NPA facility had firing range, training ground with obstacle course and other guerilla training facilities located in White Kulaman, Kitao-tao town, Bukidnon province.

Along with the Public Safety Company of Police Regional Office 10 (PRO 10), troops from the 8th IB also seized inside the training camp an M14 rifle, a RPG grenade launcher, two improvised explosive device (IEDs), 12 sets of military battle dress uniforms, one sack of cut steel bars used as IED fragments, blasting caps, steel bar cutter, and a fivemeter long explosive detonating cord.

The government composite troops also found a book entitled "New People's Army Demolition Course Manual", which may have been used in teaching recruits how to make explosives, as evidenced by the significant numbers of IED’s recovered in the said area, claimed 8th IB officer Capt. Norman M. Tagros.

The composite troops were on a security patrol following a report from a local resident about an existence of training camp in the area, he said.

Earlier, government security forces also found bomb-making facility in an area near White Kulaman where a cache of bomb materials and other war materials were found by the operating troops.

Government troops continued to secure the area as local residents anxiously braced themselves for a possible attack by NPA rebels in retaliation for the AFP operations that led to the discovery and seizure of the bomb factory and training facility, according to Lt. Col. Lennon G. Babilonia, commanding officer of the 8th IB.

The ground Army commander claimed that the White Kulaman community, which is populated by lumads or indigenous people, has suffered for years under the rule of the NPA that subjected them to forced taxation and extortion, coercion, and several other abuses.

“Many of the residents consider the law enforcement operation that was conducted in their barangay as a liberation from the hostile rule of the abusive NPA rebels,” Babilonia said.