DUMAGUETE CITY, (PNA) — Philippine Army operatives under the 302nd Infantry Brigade based in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, seized two high-powered firearms last week in Barangay Silab, Amlan town following the revelation of a suspected rebel, Fortunato Jamilla, who was arrested earlier in Dumaguete City.

Col. Manuel Luis Ochotorena, 302nd Brigade Commander, said the soldiers recovered one M-14 rifle and one M-16 rifle near the house of Jamilla’s contact at Sitio Cantalina in the village of Silab.

The special operations was launched after Jamilla disclosed the location of the arms cache and claimed that several members of the New People’s Army (NPA) had also gone on a lie-low status with their firearms stashed away in various locations, Ochotorena said.

Jamilla, 39, a resident of Talalak in Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental, was arrested by a joint team of 79th IB soldiers along with policemen last March 17 at the Dumaguete City port as he was about to depart for Manila on board a commercial shipping vessel.

Jamilla, who also goes by the name of Mike/Homer/Salam/Fry, is reportedly the third squad leader of the NPA’s Komiteng Rehiyon Sentral Bisayas-Southeast Front’s Sentro de Gravidad (Center of Gravity) platoon before he joined the rebel group’s Ivory Platoon operating in the towns of Sibulan, San Jose, Amlan and nearby areas.

He is facing various charges for murder and illegal logging, among others criminal activities.

Jamilla has admitted participation in the December 28 last year’s encounter between suspected NPA rebels and government troops in the hinterlands of Sta. Catalina.