PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, July 22 –Government troops in southern Palawan were able to capture a New People’s Army campground suspected to be a training area for improvised explosive devices (IEDs)-making on Friday afternoon.
Lt. Col. Danilo Facundo,commanding officer of the Marine Battalion Landing Team-4 (MBLT-4), on Saturday said the capture of the NPA site happened during clearing operations, several hours after his troops clashed with the armed rebels at Sitio Ilyan, Barangay Malihud, Bataraza on Friday.
The NPA camp was discovered at Sitio Kambingan, only a kilometer north of the encounter site in Sitio Ilyan.
“It appears this is the campground where they are training to make IEDs to do more roadside bombing activities that may hurt innocent civilians. Losing this is definitely a major stumbling block to the rebels in Palawan,” he said.
Facundo said the site was abandoned by the NPA terrorists because of the Marines’ pursuit operations as a result of the Malihud encounter.
Recovered from the area were numerous components for IED-making and some mutinous documents.
The base camp has 21 existing small and large single-story buildings made of crude indigenous materials, a tower guard post tree house, an advance post, a sizable outhouse for assemblies, and more than a few reinforced underground shelters.
Meanwhile, Western Command (WESCOM) spokesperson Captain Cherryl Tindog said with the breakdown of government peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF after the resurgence of their extremist activities, Team WESCOM gave assurance that it would continue its conduct of focused military operations and humanitarian activities in Palawan.
She thanked the help of partner communities in reporting the sightings of armed rebels which led to the capture of the campground.
“The CPP-NPA-NDF will continue to lie to defend their acts of violence, but the people of Palawan know better — this extremism will only hurt innocent lives,” she said.
The capture of the NPA campground in Malihud happened after President Rodrigo Duterte’s announcement that he would no longer talk with the CPP-NPA-NDF for peace. (Celeste Anna R. Formoso/PNA)