SECURITY officials have accused the New People’s Army (NPA) of secretly maintaining illegal mining sites in Camarines Sur to finance their campaign against the government.

In a report to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, General Debold M. Sinas, Police Regional Office 5 director, Brigadier Gen. Bartolome R. Bustamante said they have discovered mining areas believed being run by the NPA and their supporters in the hinterlands of Sitio Pasimpugan in Barangay Mapid in Lagonoy municipality last week.

The discovery came in the wake of a directive from Sinas to launch a massive crackdown on illegal mining activities in Bicol region which has been tagged as a main source of ingredients being used by the local NPA movement to manufacture deadly improvised explosive devices.

The explosives are being used to blow away government troops and vehicles and other targets.

On board two Air Force helicopters, Bustamante and Joint Task Force Bicolandia and Army’s 9th Infantry Division commander, Major Gen. Henry Robinsons Jr. and officers from the National Bureau of Investigation, the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau 5 of the Department of Environment and Natural inspected the suspected NPA mining areas on Tuesday last week.

The Bicol police director said they have discovered the presence of more than 200 mining holes reportedly being operated by the rebels in the area. He added that prior to the discovery of the mining sites, Army soldiers clashed with heavily-armed NPA members in the area.

One of the guerrillas who were captured during the clash later revealed their mining activities in the area, he said.

Bustamante said they are looking into reports that the CPP/NPA’s Bicol Regional Party Committee has embarked on illegal mining activities to support their movement.

“It is highly probable that the proceeds and operations of mining activities in Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Masbate are huge enough to make them (NPA movement) financially stable,” the PRO5 director said.

Army soldiers have been positioned in the area to prevent the NPA from resuming their illegal mining activities, Bustamante said.

He added that the DENR-MGB office in Region 5 had said that it will issue a ‘cease-and-desist’ order against private personalities identified as behind the operations of the illegal mining sites, including the local barangay captain.

The PRO5 earlier stepped up their intelligence effort to thwart efforts by the rebel movement to attack security officials involved in the anti-illegal mining activities in the region specifically the closure of unauthorized mining pits in Labo, Camarines Norte, the Journal Group learned.

Sinas approved a recommendation from the PNP-CIDG headed by Major Gen. Albert Ignatius D. Ferro to totally close all illegal mining operations in Camarines Norte to deny the NPA of their source of explosives components for landmines in the aftermath of the rebel attack that killed five policemen and wounded two others in Barangay Dumagmang in Labo municipality last March 19.

Ferro said they issued the recommendation amid their investigation into the most recent act of terror committed by the CPP-NPA-NDF on government personnel assigned to protect peasant communities.

The PNP-CIDG director said that an examination of IEDs recovered from the scene of the three-hour encounter led investigators to conclude that the explosives component came from illegal mining operations in Labo municipality which is known for its thriving small-scale backyard goldmining activities.

The clearing operations, Ferro said, resulted in the recovery of 75 IEDs consisting of one big ,16 small, and 53 medium-sized IEDs; and five molotov petrol bombs. Also recovered were a roll of firing wire, 43 non-electric blasting caps, two batteries and an electric blasting cap.

Officials condemned the NPA attack on the policemen who were sent to the remote barangay to guard a farm-to-market road being built by the government to introduce development to the peasant communities in the area.

According to Ferro, the local NPA movement was extorting money from the project developer.

Bustamante said the five slain policemen managed to shoot dead two of their attackers. A mopping-out operation resulted in the recovery of the bodies of two suspected NPA guerrillas believed to have been hit by the fallen officers during the gunbattle.

Bustamante said that the decomposing remains of the two were found by members of the PRO5 Regional Mobile Force Battalion, the PNP Special Action Force and the Army’s 96th Infantry Battalion who were conducting combat patrol approximately a kilometer away from the forward base of the Camarines Norte Police Provincial Office’s 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company which was assaulted by the rebels.

The official said that recovered from the bodies of the two were several improvised explosive devices and subversive documents. Also found in the same area was a backpack containing the wallet, cellular phones, identification cards and other personal belongings of the five slain policemen.

“We will see to it that these rebels will be charged in court and hunted once warrants for their arrest for multiple murder and double frustrated murder are issued,” said Sinas.

PNP Deputy Chief for Administration, Lieutenant Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar said the policemen were guarding a road construction project in Labo that would connect another portion of Quezon province to Camarines Norte to ease the transportation of goods for local farmers and the mobility of the local residents when they were killed.

Eleazar said the company received a threat from the NPA movement that they have to pay from three to five percent of the cost of the entire Labo-Tagkawayan Road project to avoid any harassment.

“The demand once heeded means that the company would be assured by the NPA that they won’t be harassed. The threat is that they would burn all the equipment being used for the construction project if they would not pay,” he added.