Army seizes firearms, grenades from NPA rebels in Rizal

Army troops seized  three firearms, five hand grenades and a rifle grenade allegedly owned by an extortion group of the New People's Army (NPA) as they conducted an intelligence operation in Tanay, Rizal.

The incident happened on May 16 at Sitio Batangasan, Brgy San Andres, when members of the 80th Infantry Battalion recovered the explosives through the help of surrenderees who "actively participate" in their operations, Brigadier General Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr., Commander of the 202nd Infantry Brigade noted.

Burgos added that it is part of the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF ELCAC) 4A’s operationalization of the "whole-of-nation-approach" concept in defeating insurgency.

"The war [materials] belong to the terrorists’ extortion group who were targeting the farms in the area and, for the longest time, have been threatening the people of Tanay," said Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Diaz, Commander of the 80th Infantry Battalion.

Acting Commander of 2nd Infantry Division Brigadier General Elias Escarcha said the NPA had left their explosives as they supposedly tried to leave the area in a hurry.

The army reported that the 21 former rebels who surrendered early this year received their government grants from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) during a ceremony last May 17. —Jamil Santos/LDF, GMA News