From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 17): Arms cache found in Masbate
A joint Army soldiers and policemen recovered over the weekend an arm cache in a
interior village in Masbate City, a Philippine Army officer said Monday.
Joint elements of Army soldiers from the 9th Infantry Battalion and
Philippine National Police (PNP) Task Force Masbate where on security patrol at
about 7 p.m. over the weekend when they received an information about hidden
firearms in a house in said village, according to Army Major Angelo Guzman, 9th
Infantry Division (ID)spokesperson.
After validating the report, the team swopped down the house in the village,
but found no one in the house instead discovered an arms cache hidden at a
basement, Guzman said. Inside the arms cache were an M16 rifle, Baby Armalite, a .45 caliber pistol,
two .38 caliber handguns, eight homemade shotguns, three anti-tank landmines,
five improvised claymore mines, 30 Molotov bombs, ammunition, six switches for
improvised explosive device (IED) 20 meters electrical wires, a binocular, a
radio and three backpacks containing personal belonging.
Probers could not yet determine if the arms cache belongs to the New People’s
Army (NPA) rebels or private armed groups (PAGS) operating in the island
province of Masbate, Guzman said. Government forces have intensified its security operations against members of
the communist movement including two private armed groups (PAGs) with around 50
heavily armed members belonging to the Arizobal and Villaruel groups.
A Task Force Masbate of PNP was recently created to hunt down PAGs and
recover thousands of loose firearms in connection with the upcoming May midterm
election next year.
PNP in Masbate estimated that there are still close to 4,000 firearms that
needs to be recovered.
Masbate had been tagged as an election hot spot every election time because
of intense political rivalries among clans, including related violence that
killed hundreds of people.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=480483
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