Kalinaw News: Soldiers discover war materials from a house near NPA camp and rescue minors

Posted to Kalinaw News (Nov 15, 2020): Soldiers discover war materials from a house near NPA camp and rescue minors



Camp Jorge Downes, Ormoc City– Operating troops of the Army’s 93rd Infantry Battalion, 802nd Infantry (Peerless) Brigade, 8ID found weapons, explosive, underground revolutionary text books and other war materials from the house of a suspected member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) located near an encampment at Sitio Utap, Barangay Canlampay, Carigara, Leyte about noon Friday, Nov.13.

Soldiers discovered from the house of a certain Edencio Dionaldo alias Bernie Bates the following illegal items:one unit of caliber .38 revolver, one unit of improvised shotgun with six rounds of live ammunition, one unit of fragmentation hand grenade, two pieces of long magazine for M16 rifle, 16 rounds of caliber 7.62mm ammunition, five rounds of caliber 5.56mm ammunition, some 50 meters of black electrical flat cord used as detonation wire, improvised dry cell-powered detonator, one unit of binocular, one unit of sphygmomanometer, four units of textbook on revolutionary underground mass movement and bomb-making manual, and Identification card of KABATAAN Partylist Group.

The Carigara Municipal Police Station, PNP under PMaj Jimmy Boy C. Balsanos, Chief-of-Police, processed the crime scene, recovered and took custody of the evidence, and formally arrested Nora and her 21-year old son Ernie about Saturday noon.

On Monday, police are expected to file charges for illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosive against the couple and Ernie, who was at the house together with his six minor siblings at the time the contrabands were found.

According to Brig. Gen. Zosimo A. Oliveros, Commander of 802nd Infantry Brigade, a platoon minus of the Alpha Company, 93IB led by 1Lt Julieto C. Degorio, Commanding Officer, was pursuing an undetermined number of suspected CPP-NPA terrorists who recently abandoned a nearby encampment when they were led to the house of Dionaldo early Friday afternoon.

The couple Edencio and Nora Dionaldo were not around but seven of their children including a 14-year old girl who is suffering from meningitis were in the house and allowed the soldiers to come inside, BGen Oliveros said, adding that once inside the house, the soldiers saw in plain view the revolutionary books, sphygmomanometer and binocular lying around. A closer examination of the house exposed the weapons and explosives in a corner.

Sometime later, Nora arrived while the soldiers were preserving the evidence and waiting for the arrival of the police which they requested to investigate the crime.

A short while before sunset, two groups of mostly young men appeared in the area-six coming from the direction of the abandoned camp and five from the opposite direction-prompting the troops to hold them overnight for verification and interview.

While police were probing the Diolano’s house, personnel of 93IB and 802nd Brigade were also investigating the 11 men who turned out to be related to the Narbonita family of Barangay Libo, Carigara.

Some of them though admitted that they were misled to support Anak Pawis Partylist in the 2019 national and local elections.

Despite the many faulty alibis offered by the men, Brig. Gen. Oliveros decided to turn the men over to the local government unit of Carigara under Mayor Eduardo C. Ong in good health condition as the military continue to probe their link to the local CPP-NPA terrorists.

Lt. Col. Robert Beatisula, Commander of 93IB, turned over the 11 men and the five minor children of the Dionaldo couple, saved the 17-year old Rodney who was left behind the house to tend their domesticated animals, to lawyer Wenceslao Narido, Carigara municipal administrator, thru the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) and Carigara MPS Women and Children’s Desk which profiled them all.

The Barangay Captains of Canlampay, Libo and Upper Hiraan subsequently received the men, while an uncle of the Dionaldo kids from Barangay Hiluctogan temporarily assumed custody of his nephews.

“Once again, this incident proves the evil practice of the CPP-NPA of destroying families as in the case of the Dionaldo children who bore witness to the illegal practices of their father including the bomb-making instruction. Edencio Dionaldo alias Bernie Bates abandoned her 10 children, prompting three of them to work for a living. He stored weapons and explosive in the house without regard of the young kids’ safety,” said Brig. Gen. Oliveros.

“On the other hand, local officials seemed to be playing deaf to the ongoing illegal activities of the Communist Terrorist Group in their respective places. We therefore challenge local officials in Carigara to be more active in countering the inroads of communist terrorism in the locality,” concluded Brig. Gen. Oliveros.

https://www.kalinawnews.com/soldiers-discover-war-materials-from-a-house-near-npa-camp-and-rescue-minors/