COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The military announced on Monday the seizure of a huge cache of explosives in Guindulungan, Maguindanao, which were allegedly used by Moro rebels in their bombing operations in southern Philippines.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce, spokesma of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said an oil drum container filled with 18 assorted mortars (mostly 81-millimeter), inexpensive cell phones, and other paraphernalia used in the making of improvised explosive devices was recovered in a dugout within Camp Afghan of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which government troops overran in June.

"Very soon, we will make public all these recovered mortars and bomb paraphernalia on TV and photo ops," Ponce said.

He said a couple of skirmishes happened Saturday and Sunday near the abandoned Camp Afghan as soldiers on a "clearing operation" sighted the massing of some 50 to 70 fully armed guerrillas.

There were no reported casualties from the government side in the almost 30-minute firefight at Ahan and Makasampal, both Guindulungan villages in Maguindanao.

The clearing operation, according to Ponce, resulted in the recovery of assorted ammunition of M14, M16, and 50 cal. Rifles, and personal belongings.

MILF fighters have been "very mobile" since the Armed Forces of the Philippines has been running after renegade Commander Ameril Ombra Kato of the 105th MILF Base Command, said Ponce.

He theorized that the massing of MILF troops near Camp Afghan could be an attempt by the rebels to recover the explosives they left behind. "Or there could have been many more kept in the camp that soldiers have yet to retrieve," Ponce said.

Eid Kabalu, speaking for the MILF, has confirmed the weekend skirmishes in Guindulungan but warned the public against believing what he considered the military concoction of a huge mortar find.

Kabalu doubted Ponce's claim, due to the belated reporting of the find. "This seems to be a new propaganda approach of the military in the realm of consolidation of concocted proofs," Kabalu said.

"They want to picture us as terrorists," said Kabalu, who reiterated his call for an independent probe into all these accusations hurled against the MILF.