Combined teams of the police and military arrested two Bayan Muna organizers and confiscated unlicensed firearms and subversive documents from their house in Guihulngan, Oriental Negros, on Saturday.

Arrested allegedly for illegal possession of firearms were Emelia Quirante, chairperson of Bayan Muna in Guihulngan, and her brother, Toto. Armed with a search warrant issued by Dumaguete Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Lualhalti Bustamante, intelligence operatives of the Negros Oriental police headed by Senior Inspector Errol Pineda, assisted by the 11th Infantry Battalion Bravo Company soldiers, swooped down on the house of Quirante in Sitio Casanday, Brgy. Trinidad, Guihulngan, at about 3 a.m. Saturday.

Lt. Col. Jess Manangquil, 11th IB commander, yesterday said the raid at the house of Quirante, that was witnessed by Kagawad Democrito Balucos and Pat Rene, yielded a .38 caliber revolver, a caliber .22 rifle, and subversive documents.

Manangquil claimed that Emilia also chaired the Provincial Peasant Committee of the Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros, aside from being a leader of Bayan Muna in Guihulngan, and whose brother, Toto, served as among their organizers.

The military classified Brgy. Trinidad, an upland barangay of Guihulngan, among the areas where the New People's Army have established their mass-based organizations.

Quirante and her brother were brought to the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office in Brgy. Agan-an, Sibulan, where they are now detained for illegal possession of firearms.

Manangquil said they believe that the house of Quirante is being used as a "safehouse" of the New People's Army in Brgy. Trinidad, Guihulngan.

Bayan Muna and its allied party-list groups accused the 61st Infantry Battalion of harassing their members and of being responsible for the evacuation of residents in the upland barangays of Santa Catalina, Oriental Negros.

The claims were vehemently denied by Lt.Col. Norman Flores, 61st IB commander, who dismissed them as a political gimmick.*GPB

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