Bacolod City – The Rachelle Mae Palang Command of the New People’s Army Southeast Negros Guerrilla Front (RMPC-NPA) strongly denied claims on the recovery of bomb components in Sitio Carima, Brgy. Talalak, Santa Catalina in Negros Oriental, as an “obvious hoax.”
“They are recycling their broken-record narrative of ‘discovering’ evidence that they themselves have planted,” RMPC-NPA spokesperson Estrella Banagbanag, said in a statement.
Police operatives have recovered components for an improvised explosive device (IED) in a remote mountain village in Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental, as a result of sustained operations against the communist New People’s Army (NPA).
Lt. Stephen Polinar, public information officer and deputy chief of the Police Community Affairs and Development Unit of the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office, said recently the discovery of the IED components last week came after a tip from an informant of the 705th Mobile Force Company.
The items, which were found buried in a vacant lot in Sitio Carima, Barangay Talalak, included three pieces of detonating cord; three pieces of main charge; three blasting caps; and one 9-volt battery.
Banagbanag claimed that the recent fake news is part of the government’s “witch-hunt and counterrevolution, in trying to chase their pipe dream of eviscerating the revolutionary movement by year’s end.”
The RMPC-NPA operating in southern Negros Oriental was already declared dismantled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but police and military efforts continue to prevent the remnants of the guerilla front from recouping and recruiting mass base support. (Gilbert Bayoran The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS with report from Philippine News Agency)
