COTABATO CITY, April 8 -- Government forces separately recovered 10 assorted high-powered firearms from private armed groups (PAGs) in Maguindanao del Norte over the weekend, police and military authorities said Monday.

In one of the operations, a police team was on patrol in Barangay Labungan, Datu Odin Sinsuat town on Saturday when they discovered a cache of abandoned firearms.

"After exploring the area, our troops discovered six high-powered firearms and war paraphernalia that had been left unattended," Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, police regional director for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said in a statement Monday.

The firearms included two M16 rifles, a Thompson submachine gun, a shotgun, a Garand r...