LEGAZPI CITY –– A cache of high-powered firearms and ammunition left behind by fleeing suspected New People Army (NPA) rebels were recovered on Tuesday morning in a remote village in San Fernando town in Masbate province.
Captain John Paul Belleza, public affairs chief of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division, said while Army soldiers were in hot pursuit operations in connection with the recent encounter on Sunday, a villager in Barangay Salvacion, told the soldiers that he saw several firearms in a copra-drying shack at Sitio Diwata of the said village.
Upon scouring the area, soldiers were able to recover seven M16 rifles, an M4A1, M653, a shotgun, 13 long magazines, and assorted ammunition.
On Sunday, a soldier was killed in an encounter with NPA rebels in Barangay Salvacion. Army troops also recovered three M16, two M4, M653 rifles, and an M203 grenade launcher left behind by fleeing NPA rebel that day.
Belleza said that a total of 16 high-powered firearms and other equipment and documents were recovered from the NPA.