Farmer discovers IEDs, bullets buried in his farm
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 15:00 PM Mon Oct 28, 2019
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By:
Edwin O. Fernandez
KIDAPAWAN CITY — An alert farmer prevented explosives to go to wrong hands after he alerted police authorities about his discovery in his farm in Magpet, North Cotabato over the weekend, police said today.
Vincent Olarte Cantillas, a farmer and a resident of Barangay Kamada, Magpet, rushed to the police station on Saturday afternoon after he noticed high explosives inside a pail buried in his farm in Sitio San Roque, Barangay Amabel, also in Magpet.
Captain Rolando Dillera Jr, chief of Magpet town police, lauded Cantillas for quickly informing the police about his discovery that indirectly save lives and properties.
“He found a pail in his farm covered with dried leaves in his farm lot,” Dillera said Cantillas. “When checked, he found mortars and bullets.”
Dillera said combined Magpet PNP and members of 72nd Infantry Battalion and police bomb experts rushed to the site and a large plastic pail.
Inside it were 10 pieces live 60 mm mortars, 20 bullets for cal. 30 machinegun, electrical wire, a home-made improvised tube for 60 mm and steel base plate.
No one claimed ownership of the explosives.
But Dillera believed the explosives were kept by New Peoples Army (NPAs) in the area for possible future bomb attacks.
Communist rebels operate in the mountains of Magpet, including Barangay Amabel. (PNA)