PNP eyes leftist group in Lagman assassination

Police investigators are looking into the possibility that members of a divided leftist organization carried out the assassination of prominent labor leader Felimon "Popoy" Lagman at the University of the Philippines (UP) campus in Quezon City the other day.

However, militant labor groups want authorities to investigate the possible involvement of ousted President Joseph Estrada and former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Panfilo Lacson in the killing, noting Lagman’s alleged tie-up with the two in the past.

"Task Force Popoy," made up of combined units from the PNP-Intelligence Group, PNP- Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Central Police District, released yesterday sketches of the gunmen based on eyewitness descriptions. Investigators said they were studying physical evidence left at the scene of the shooting Tuesday.

Lagman was declared dead at 9:10 p.m. Tuesday, several hours after he was shot in the head at close range by four unidentified men inside the UP Alumni Center.

Senior Inspector Rudy Jaraza, homicide chief of the CPD-Criminal Investigation Unit, said that from the modus operandi, "we can say the shooting was the work of a communist hit squad."

"It’s all there – the use of a .45 caliber pistol, gunmen on foot, escape using a stolen vehicle, the cool and calculated kill," Jaraza said. "It is the trademark of the Sparrow unit."

The Sparrow unit was an urban hit squad formed in the 1980s by the communist guerrilla group New People’s Army (NPA).

Lagman is believed to have once headed another communist urban assassination squad, the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB), which killed about 100 soldiers, policemen and civilians in Metro Manila in the 1980s.

He was captured by the government in 1984 but was soon released. He then formed a breakaway leftist group, Sanlakas and a labor federation, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, outside the main leftist coalition Communist Party of the Philippines that was allied with the NPA.

Lagman’s breakaway groups and other leftists were bitter rivals despite having similar ideologies.

A ranking intelligence officer said yesterday that the communist rejectionists and reaffirmists are only two of four well-organized groups that could have carried out the killing of Lagman.

"What we have here is the possible involvement of the rejectionist group identified with Lagman, the reaffirmist group loyal to the communist party founder Jose Ma. Sison, a right-wing group made up of men in uniform, and another group out to destabilize the new administration of President Arroyo," the source pointed out.

The intelligence officer, who requested anonymity, said the rejectionists could have carried out their chieftain’s assassination "to re-ignite the flames of the class struggle."

He said a breakaway faction, headed by Nilo de la Cruz and Arturo Tabara, is closely being eyed.

Lagman, Tabara and De la Cruz were comrades in the ABB before going their separate ways due to conflicting ideological beliefs.

On several occasions, Lagman had accused his former comrades of being government collaborators, whom he described as "well-paid agents of PNP chief Lacson."

"We are not discounting the possibility that an unseen hand could have employed the services of Tabara and De la Cruz," the source said.

In a statement, the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) called on authorities to look into alleged tie-ups Lagman had with Estrada and Lacson, which could have been a possible motive for his assassination.

"Having been Estrada’s ally in the past, including his alleged tie-up with Lacson, and having brokered several multimillion-peso deals like PEA-Amari and Philippine Airlines, this angle is worth looking into as a possible cause for his ambush," KMU chairman Crispin Beltran said.

Communist leaders had charged that Lagman at one time allegedly accepted P250 million to drive squatters out of the Amari real estate project along Roxas Boulevard. He also participated in the negotiations to resolve the labor disputes involving the flag carrier, the leaders said.

GMA orders probe, manhunt

President Arroyo ordered Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Angelo Reyes yesterday to mobilize the military’s intelligence service to assist in the manhunt for Lagman’s killers.

She earlier ordered PNP chief Deputy Director General Leandro Mendoza to conduct an investigation into the killing, saying the perpetrators must be arrested "at the soonest possible time."

The National Bureau of Investigation is also conducting its own probe.

Former Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. condemned the killing of Lagman, which he called a "shameless act of violence."

"I urge our authorities to exhaust all possible efforts to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of this heinous crime, to give justice to the Lagman family, and to show that the new administration of President Arroyo will not tolerate such blatant criminal acts," Villar said in press statement.

Bohol Rep. Ernesto Herrera, meanwhile, urged authorities to look into the possibility that Lagman was killed to stir up the radical left and create a diversion for a bigger plot to destabilize the newly installed administration.

"At this point, we should not discount the possibility that the killing was carried out by police or military elements loyal to Estrada, and who are out to sow civil disorder," Herrera said.

He said people cannot help but compare Lagman’s killing to the murder of another labor leader, Rolando Olalia in October 1986, months after then President Corazon Aquino was swept into power.

"Ka Lando’s murder was part of the attempts to destabilize the young Aquino government. I hope the death of Lagman is not something along this line," Herrera said.

Shortly after Olalia was killed, a rightist faction in the military tried to overthrow the Aquino administration. It was widely believed that the labor leader was murdered to agitate the revolutionary left and spark a diversion that allowed plotters to mount the failed coup.

Similar suspicions are growing that the killing of Lagman is related to power struggles in the wake of Mrs. Arroyo’s assumption of the presidency.

Militant organizations, including Sanlakas and BMP, described the killing of Lagman as "politically motivated."

"Some commentators are pointing to disputes within the revolutionary movement as the motive, but we emphatically do not discount the involvement of elements of the military and police acting in the service of powerful vested interests," the groups said in a statement. – With reports from Christina Mendez, Mayen Jaymalin, Jess Diaz, Marichu Villanueva, Jose Aravilla, Non Alquitran, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jose Aravilla, Nestor Etolle, Benjie Villa, Antonieta Lopez