Troops overrun ‘biggest NPA bomb factory’

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 02:52pm (Mla time) 01/25/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Army troops overran on Wednesday what is believed to be the biggest bomb-making facility of the communist New People's Army (NPA) in the southern Philippines, a military spokesman said.

After a brief firefight, troops from the 36th Infantry Battalion seized a cave in sitio (sub-village) Greenfields, Sta. Juana village, Tagbina town, Surigao del Sur province, where the explosives were kept, said Army public affairs chief Major Ernesto Torres Jr.

Recovered from the facility were 42 containers of superdyne dynamite, 18 landmines, an M14 and M16 rifle, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, two mortar base plates, a B40 anti-tank weapon base plate, a rifle ammunition reloading machine, a 13mm electric drill press machine, 76 rounds of M60 machine gun ammunition, detonating wires and two expanders, Torres said.

Troops are digging inside the cave, which Torres said also served as a regional NPA headquarters and training camp, to recover another 100 containers of dynamite.

"The capture of the 'CT [communist terrorist] factory' will definitely degrade the CT bomb-making capability in Mindanao," Torres said.

A B40 anti-tank weapon, a motorcycle, and rebel publications were seized in an encounter between government and guerrillas near the bomb factory last January 18, the spokesman said.

Troops, aided by two MG-520 attack helicopters and two UH-1H helicopters from the Philippine Air Force (PAF), are pursuing the NPA fighters who operated the facility, Torres said.

The military has set a 2010 deadline to defeat the 7,100 strong NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has been waging a 37-year guerilla campaign from the countryside.

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