Murder raps filed vs NPA leader for ex-major's slay

TARLAC CITY - Police have filed murder charges against the provincial commander of the New People's Army (NPA) for the ambush-slaying of discharged Army major Leodegario Adalem and his driver-aide last April 11.

Charged was rebel leader Nelson Medina, who uses the aliases Ka Dondie and Ka Gideon. Police also named one Ferdinand Dayrit and four John Does in their murder complaint with the city prosecutor's office.

At least six men gunned downed Adalem and his aide, Tomas Pangilinan, said to be an "asset" of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), while they were going out of the gate of the National Irrigation Adminis-tration's provincial office in Barangay Maliwalo here.

Police and NBI probers said Mesina and Dayrit's file photos matched the sketches drawn from descriptions given by witnesses.

Before they were peppered with caliber .45 bullets, witnesses said one of the gunmen shouted, "Walang makikialam, mga NPA kami. Si Adalem lang ang kailangan namin (Don't interfere, we are NPAs. We are only after Adalem)."

Shortly after the killing, Jose Agtalon, who claimed to be the spokesman of the NPA's Josepino Corpuz Command that has jurisdiction over Central Luzon, said Adalem was meted with "revolutionary justice" for the 1980 murder of Ifugao tribal leader Macli-ing Dulag, who had led his tribesmen in opposing the projects of Cellophil Resources and the 1,000-megawatt Chico River hydroelectric dam of the National Power Corp. in the Cordilleras.

Adalem had just submitted his bid documents for some components of the NIA's multibillion-peso Balog-balog dam project in San Jose, Tarlac before he and Pangilinan were killed.

Last year, Mesina, along with suspected rebel Janet Cruz, 24, of Barangay San Rafael here, was charged for the abduction and killing of SPO4 Roland Aceres, a police substation commander in Gerona town.

Like Cruz, Dayrit was a former student leader at the Tarlac State University, police investigators said. Both belonged to the militant League of Filipino Students and were later recruited to join the Kabataang Makabayan of the Communist Party of the Philippines, before becoming NPA fighters.

Superintendent Pepito An-tang, chief of the Provincial Anti-Crime Group (PACG), said investigators were "90 percent sure" that Adalem's killers were communist assassins based on the sketches of the suspects.

But Superintendent Maximo Calimlim, provincial police director, said they are not yet discounting the possible involvement of Adalem's business associates in his murder.

"We are reserving a 10-percent skepticism on the NPA's participation because the killers were obviously completely aware of Maj. Adalem's movements," Calimlim said.

"It could also be possible that some of (Adalem's) associates had collaborated with the communists," he added.

According to Antang, if the NPA rebels acted independently, it was most likely that they had learned of Adalem's participation in the Balog-balog dam project.