KIDAPAWAN CITY–Government forces on Wednesday found two abandoned training camps of communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in the hinterlands of Magpet, North Cotabato.
In a statement released Thursday, 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 Mt. 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)
