KIDAPAWAN CITY –- The Army here said Saturday it foiled a plot by the New Peoples Army (NPA) to launch attacks in North Cotabato with the recovery of 20 Armalite rifles and two hand grenades.
Col. Harold Argamosa, commander of the Army’s 9th Infantry Battalion, said military intelligence agents uncovered a plot by the NPA’s Guerilla Front 53 to attack government forces and civilian communities.
Argamosa said the communists who ambushed President Duterte’s military escorts in Arakan, North Cotabato two months ago belonged to Guerilla Front 53 operating in the mountains around the country’s highest peak – Mt. Apo.
Col. Roberto Ancan, commander of the Army’s 1002nd Infantry Brigade, lauded the 39th IB for the arrest of two NPA members, identified as Wowie Tagapia Boton, 19-year old laborer, and George Landungan Cuyo, 20, a farmer, both residents of Barangay Katipunan, Kidapawan City and the recovery of 20 high powered rifles.
Argamosa said his unit received a tip from an informant about two men suspiciously hauling firearms that were to be buried in the village.
He immediately dispatched a team of soldiers accompanied by police officers to the site where they arrested the two and recovered the firearms.
North Cotabato is celebrating its foundation anniversary with a series of activities dubbed as Kalivungan Festival.
Soldiers have been placed on heightened alert following the recovery of firearms.
Last month, the Army arrested a sub-commander of Guerilla Front 53 in nearby Makilala town who was keeping three M-16 Armalite rifles and bomb making devices.
Few weeks later, the NPAs captured Police Officer 1 Bristol Catalan in what authorities believed was retaliation for the arrest of NPA leader. (Edwin Fernandez and John Andrew Tabugoc/PNA)