Law enforcers and several barangay officials walked almost six hours up into the mountains of San Miguel town last week to dig up a sack containing a high-powered rifle, two magazines and bullets, all tinged with rust after two years of being buried.
According to the report released by the office of Catanduanes Police Provincial Director Col. Rayan Ador, the team composed of the Catanduanes 1st Provincial Mobile Force Company’s Revitalized Pulis sa Barangay (R-PSB) based in barangay JM Alberto, together with elements of the San Miguel police station and the Provincial Intelligence Unit (PIU), reached the site where an unidentified informant said the weapon and ammunition was hidden in sitio Coripdas.
Shortly after 12:20 PM of Feb. 5, 2024, the team finally excavated the hole, retrieving a sack containing the Colt M16 rifle, two steel magazines and 45 rounds of ammunition, validating the information given by the informant.
The rifle, magazines and bullets were initially placed in custody of the San Miguel police station before it was turned over to the Catanduanes Provincial Forensic Unit to undergo ballistic examination.
R-PSB team leader PCapt. Alner Peñeda expressed the unit’s gratitude to JM Alberto residents for responding to the government’s call for an end to violence.
“This is a good start in our effort to prevent any threat to the peace and security in the province,” he said.
Five days after the incident, the individual who gave the information on the buried weapon surrendered to the police, admitting that he served as a member of the Militia ng Bayan (MB) of the New People’s Army (NPA).
The report said that the militiaman’s surrender, with the help of a barangay kagawad, came through the efforts of the R-PSB Team, headed by PCapt. Peneda and under the supervision of PMaj. Joseph Abel Jarabejo, and the San Miguel MPS led by officer-in-charge PCapt. Lester Quililan.
The individual, it is claimed, was an informant and buyer of food and other basic needs of the rebel group.
The police said his return to the society shows his trust in the government and indicates the people’s trust in the police, particularly in barangay JM Alberto and in the entire San Miguel.
PCapt. Peneda called on residents to continue supporting the government and promised to assist the few who strayed off the path to rejoin the community and live peacefully.
He said it is not too late for them to face a new life.