FORT MAGSAYSAY, Nueva Ecija — Security forces discovered Thursday a firearms cache of the New People’s Army (NPA) in barangay Villa, Maria Aurora town in Aurora.
After receiving information from a former rebel, one platoon of the 91st Infantry Battalion (91IB), elements of the Aurora 1st Police Mobile Force Company and troops of the 303rd Regional Mobile Force Battalion conducted an operation to recover the cache.
It contained firearms of former members of Komiteng Larangang Gerilya (KLG) Sierra Madre, an armed NPA guerilla front that operates in the mountain ranges of the Sierra Madre.
It has now greatly weakened due to the relentless operations of the 7th Infantry Division’s 91IB that has operational jurisdiction in the Province of Aurora.
Alias Dave, who is a former KLG Sierra Madre member, said the firearms cache contained five high-powered firearms.
He said they reveal it now to show their sincerity of leaving behind the armed struggle and totally surrendering the use of firearms for a peaceful life. True enough, when the security forces found the cache, there were five M16 rifles inside.
In a statement, 7th Infantry Division Commander Major General Lenard T. Agustin said the credit goes not just to the hardworking team of the 91IB but to all government security forces who helped in the surrender of the former rebels and in the retrieval of the arms cache.
“The things we have achieved we owe to the implementation of the whole-of-nation approach which is the break we needed to get the full support of government agencies and the people to believe in us and trust us to do what needs to be done to end the local communist armed conflict and achieve lasting peace and sustainable development for all,” Agustin furthered.