ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
By Hader Glang
Philippines security forces have seized a cache of explosive-making materials and a man they suspect of transporting it, after raising the security level in the country's Muslim south following four separate explosions that wounded 16 people earlier this week.
Police Chief Supt. Edgar Basbas said Thursday that a 36-year-old man has been arrested for possessing ten sacks containing 30 blasting caps, seven arming devices, 50 meters of electrical wire, 18 battery units and one improvised explosive component in southern Zamboanga del Sur province on Mindanao island.
He identified the suspect as Joel Sumagop, a suspected member of the New People's Army - the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The arrests came after two people carrying the sacks bolted, leaving their loads, after being spotted by a patrol of police and army troops. Sumagop was caught, the bomb materials identified, but his companion escaped.
Almost 800 Sof AK47 assault rifle cartridges, medical supplies, foodstuffs, and toiletries were also in the suspect's possession.
Chief Superintendent Edgar Basbas said he believed that the recovered bomb materials could be part of a plot by NPA rebels against military and police targets.
The NPA has been waging an insurgency since 1969 that has left tens of thousands of people dead.
Philippine authorities have tagged the NPA rebels as notorious extortionists and blamed them for harassing banana, pineapple and rubber plantations, as well as poultry farms and mining outfits.
President Benigno Aquino III had aimed to reach a peace deal with the communists by the end of his term in 2016, but the government last year said talks had collapsed due to rebel demands that detained comrades be freed.
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