DAVAO CITY – Philippine authorities are holding 2 men, who were caught transporting improvised explosives in New Bataan town in the southern province of Compostela Valley, the army said on Wednesday.
Capt. Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said the duo – Edwin Sarvida and Dodong Langoy – were arrested in the village called Andap following an operation launched by the police and military.
He said security forces recovered two improvised explosives weighing 5 kilos from the two men, who were allegedly transporting the bombs for communist rebel group New People’s Army.
“The local police are now investigating the two men who are facing criminal charges for illegal possession of explosives,” Caber told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
It was unknown whether the two men were members of the NPA or just couriers, but Caber claimed that 58 explosives had been recovered by the army and police in eastern Mindanao alone and that 47 rebels were also arrested or captured since January.
He said just this April, at least one civilian was killed and 9 others wounded in random bomb attacks by rebels in Surigao del Sur and North Cotabato provinces.
The army has condemned the bomb attacks, but the NPA said all explosives they use to target soldiers and policemen are command-detonated. The rebels have been fighting for many decades now for a separate state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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