July 23, 2012, The Philippine Star, Troops recover NPA camp in NCotabato, by John Unson,

July 23, 2012, The Philippine  Star, Troops recover NPA camp in NCotabato, by John Unson, Updated  01:32 PM

KIDAPAWAN CIY, Philippines - Soldiers overran a fortified enclave of the New People’s Army and recovered a 15-kilo improvised explosive device fleeing rebels rigged on a farm trail in separate operations in Magpet, North Cotabato Sunday.

1st Lt. Nasrullah Sema, civil-military relations officer of the Army’s 57h Infantry Battalion, said his companions, led by 1st Lt. Bruno Hugo, found the IED before someone could step on a tripwire attached to the device's blasting mechanism.

The IED was planted along a trail, which connects corn farms of Visayan and Manobo peasants in Barangay Celo to the town proper of Magpet where they sell their farm products.

The IED was found by patrolling soldiers after combatants of the 57th IB, which has jurisdiction over Magpet and five other North Cotabato towns and Kidapawan City, drove away about a hundred of NPAs from a guerrilla camp to a hill near Barangay Celo.

The camp was abandoned by its occupants after a three-four firefight.

Villagers displaced by the hostilities have confirmed that the rebels escaped carrying several dead companions and more than a dozen others who were wounded in the ensuing firefights.

The rebels set on fire some 50 houses of ethnic Manobo villagers along their escape route as they fled towards a hinterland area at the forested border of North Cotabato and Bukidnon.

Soldiers and operatives of the police’s Special Action Force that forced the rebels out of their camp recovered from the scene ammunition of assorted calibers, documents and lists of members of the North Cotabato’s business community the NPA members purportedly subject to taxation activities.