NPA owns up to Aguinaldo slay; government questions NDF

New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas admitted yesterday to assassinating outgoing Cagayan Rep. Rodolfo Aquinaldo, accusing him of brutality and "crimes against the people."

The NPA said Aguinaldo, 54, who was gunned down outside his home in the northern town of Tuguegarao Tuesday night, deserved to die.

Meanwhile, the government has questioned communist rebels negotiating a peace deal over the assassination of Aguinaldo, who lost in his reelection bid in the last elections.

Philippine National Police director for community affairs Director Thompson Lantion said chief government negotiator Silvestre Bello III brought up the murder with his counterpart in the National Democratic Front (NDF) during peace talks in Oslo, Norway.

"Bello asked them if they had anything to do with the killing, but the NDF has no information about it," he said.

The communist’s armed wing accused Aguinaldo of causing the suffering if thousands of women, children and activists during the martial law years in the 1970s.

"Aguinaldo was pure anti-people. He was rotten ... cruel and brutal," the NPA said in a statement. "His death has long been overdue."

With the NPA owning up to the murder, Lantion said "we will certainly advise the (government) panel there because it would have a bearing on the negotiations."

On the other hand, chief NDF negotiator Luis Jalandoni told a radio station in Manila yesterday Aguinaldo, a retired Constabulary colonel and member of an anti-communist unit during martial law, was on the hit list of the New People’s Army (NPA).

"Aguinaldo has many blood debts to the people," he said.

Jalandoni earlier said they had received no advice on whether the NPA was behind the attack on Aguinaldo, who was shot dead along with his police security aide outside his home in Tuguegarao Tuesday night.

Tuguegarao police are eyeing the possibility that local politicians or the NPAs were behind the assassination of Aguinaldo and his bodyguard, but communist rebels are the principal suspect.

The underground movement Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (PMP) has described the killing of Aguinaldo as "just punishment" for the crimes he had allegedly committed against the Filipino people.

"Whatever the motive of the killers and whoever masterminded the killing of Aguinaldo, his ambush is simply delayed payment for his blood debts against the Filipino people and the revolutionary movement," read the PMP statement.

The statement said the PMP and the Armadong Partisano ng Paggawa will "snare" those who had committed crimes and atrocities against civilians.

Cagayan Valley police director Chief Superintendent Dominador Resos Jr. has created a task force headed by Superintendent Romeo Pagalilauan to investigate the killing of Aguinaldo and his aide, SPO1 Joey Garro.

The task force will be comprised of members of the Cagayan provincial police, Tuguegarao City police, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Lantion said PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza has ordered Resos to deploy more policemen to Tuguegarao to diffuse the tension that may heat up between supporters of Aguinaldo and his political rivals.

"This is the aftermath of the elections," he said. "So there is still emotional high among the followers. That is why we are calling for sobriety and to let the course of justice prevail."

CIDG director Chief Superintendent Nestorio Gualberto told reporters at Camp Olivas in Pampanga yesterday Aguinaldo must have been killed by "professional guns-for-hire" because of the way they operated.

"The assassins waited for a couple of hours sitting on the bench in front of Aguinaldo’s house," he said.

Gualberto said he had sent a crack team to Tuguegarao to help local police speed up the investigation of Aguinaldo’s killing so the perpetrators can be immediately arrested.

Fellow congressmen speculated that Aguinaldo may have been killed by NPA rebels because of a privilege speech he made at a special session of Congress last June 3.

In that speech, Aguinaldo revealed that certain party-list groups that took part in the last elections were fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the police should not let Aguinaldo’s killing be listed as another unsolved case like the ambush-slaying last month of Quezon Rep. Marcial Punzalan Jr.

Belmonte said lawmakers and ordinary citizens would not feel safe on the streets unless these cases of murdered congressmen are solved.

On the other hand, Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III said police should investigate reports that Aguinaldo had received death threats from supposedly communist rebels before his death.

Albano said that weeks before Aguinaldo’s assassination, he had been telling colleagues of the death threats he was getting from the NPA.

Senator-elect Manuel Villar Jr., an outgoing Las Piñas congressman, said authorities should "leave no stone unturned" in getting to the bottom of "this senseless act of violence" so that the perpetrators may be arrested and charged in court.– Lito Salatan, Jess Diaz, Charlie Lagasca, Efren Danao, Mayen Jaymalin, Christina Mendez