Rebs gun down Leyte cop, live-in partner

TABANGO, Leyte - Seven suspected communist rebels, clad in civilian clothes, gunned down a police corporal and his live-in partner in a tabo (flea market) in Barangay Inangatan, some eight kilometers away from this town's poblacion, last Friday.

The attack on PO3 Aldeger Uyhamco, 43, assigned with the Ormoc City police, and live-in partner Nonieta Espiritu, 46, sent market-goers scampering for safety.

The killing came a day after the Eastern Visayas police beefed up its units as intelligence reports confirmed the rebels' plan to mount major offensives to mark the New People's Army's founding anniversary on March 29.

Uyhamco was the fourth policeman killed by rebels in the region since January. Last Feb. 16, a band of 16 guerrillas stormed the police outpost in Sta. Rita, Samar, killing SPO2 Gilberto Malinap.

In January, two policemen were slain and four others were wounded in an NPA ambush in Pinabacadao, Samar.

Investigation showed Uyhamco died on the spot with nine gunshot wounds, while Espiritu succumbed to a bullet wound while being rushed to the hospital.

The rebels, one of them a woman, fled on horses towards the mountain boundary of Barangays Inangatan and Sumakat, police said. They took Uyhamco's M-14 rifle and caliber .45 pistol.

Senior Inspector Ranulfo Sanchez of the Ormoc City police said three NPA groups, led by Rene Balicante, Boy Caliawan and Luis Villena, may be behind the killing.