INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
LUCENA CITY — Government forces recovered on Monday a cache of explosives allegedly hidden by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Calauag town in Quezon province, a police report said on Tuesday, July 18.
Colonel Ledon Monte, Quezon police chief, said police and Army soldiers, guided by an anonymous tip, found the location of the explosives at 3:15 p.m.
Monte said the government forces found five improvised explosive devices inside a black bag in Barangay Kigtan.
“The insurgency-free status in our province did not stop with a mere declaration. We will continue to safeguard our province against any traces of evil brought about by leftist adversaries,” Monte said in his report.
On July 13, government security forces captured two alleged top NPA leaders in Atimonan town.
Army Lieutenant Colonel Joel Jonson, commander of the 85th Infantry Battalion, reported that combined soldier and police forces, armed with arrest warrants, swooped down on Barangay Caridad Ibaba and arrested Miguela Peñero and Rowena Dasig in their safehouse.
The raiders reportedly seized an unspecified number of firearms, explosives, and ammunition from the arrested rebels.
The report tagged Peñero as the leader of an NPA unit operating in the province and a former head of the rebel’s medical command in the Southern Tagalog along with Dasig.
“She was also assigned to lead planned assassinations of former rebels who have returned to the government,” Jonson said.
Last month, Quezon province attained a “Stable Internal Peace and Security” (SIPS) status, which means the Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the NPA no longer posed a threat to local peace and order.
Monte said the NPA may still have remnants in Quezon, “but they are no longer capable of initiating terrorist acts and they have no more supporters.”
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