The Philippine military on Friday arrested a bomb expert of the New People's Army (NPA), one of Asia's oldest insurgency organizations.
The Army division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) identified the bomb expert as Ruel Calolot. Calolot and his brother Ramil were arrested by the Philippine security forces in the Quezon town, Bukidnon Province in the Southern Philippines.
Philippine security forces confirmed that he was the bomb expert who was on the radar of officials after he was identified by his identification card. The raiding team also found out he was a member of a left leaning party-list called Anak Pawis (English Translation: Child of sweat Party List).
Government security forces confiscated explosive devices, two .38 revolvers, bomb-making materials and three laptop computers.
According to the Army spokesperson Captain Joe Patrick Martinez, government security forces responded to report that NPA rebels were spotted in the community, who according to intelligence reports were planning to launch attacks either on military detachments or civilian communities.
"It's good we were able to prevent their plan to carry out attacks in our area of responsibility," Martinez told journalists.
The NPA rebels and the Philippine government were supposed to hold peace dialogues to stop the armed hostilities. However, the negotiations got stalled after the rebels were reported to have attacked army and police detachments.
Frustrated with the insincere actions of the NPA, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that he would no longer to hold peace dialogues with the rebels and asked the government to arrest the peace panel representing the rebels.
