Aguinaldo slay: Talks with NDF on ‘indefinite recess’

The government placed yesterday peace negotiations with communist rebels on "indefinite recess" after New People’s Army (NPA) hit men gunned down outgoing Cagayan Rep. Rodolfo Aguinaldo last Tuesday night.

President Arroyo ordered her negotiators in peace talks in Oslo, Norway to return home as soon as possible for consultations.

In Tuguegarao City, police investigators have identified five of the suspected killers of Aguinaldo based on an affidavit of the owner of a boarding house facing the apartment that was rented by the slain congressman.

In her affidavit Esmenia Gonzales named the five as Gerry Bautista, Gerald Evangelista, Gener Villanueva Bulusan, Felix Roblegado and the lone woman, Aileen Santos-dela Cruz, who are all reportedly residents of Barangay Abot in Quezon town, Isabela.

The information is contained in the report of Task Force Aguinaldo commander Superintendent Romeo Pagalaliuan to Cagayan Valley police director Chief Superintendent Dominador Resos Jr.

Police investigators are still trying to establish the identities of the three other suspects, whom witnesses described as between 25 and 30 years old.

Investigations showed the five rented from Gonzales a room overlooking Aguinaldo’s apartment last June 10. They were said to have been recommended to Gonzales by a certain Jerry Bautista, who is also from Quezon, Isabela.

Gonzales said the five arrived at the boarding house last Monday with a carton, which police believe contained the guns used in killing Aguinaldo.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group released yesterday the sketches of the five, who are still at large.

Cagayan police commander Superintendent Ricardo Padilla has ordered checkpoints set up at all entrance and exit points in Tuguegarao following reports that the suspects are still hiding in the city.

In Oslo, chief government negotiator Silvestre Bello III said yesterday negotiations will not resume until Mrs. Arroyo "shall have given us instructions" and the National Democratic Front (NDF) shall have given a satisfactory explanation for the assassination.

"While we are talking peace here, they continue to commit hostilities," he said. "This is not in keeping with our mutual commitment to extend goodwill. We demanded an immediate and satisfactory explanation from (the NDF)."

In a television interview yesterday, chief rebel negotiator Luis Jalandoni applauded Aguinaldo’s killing and congratulated his suspected killers.

"(The government) should accept this as just punishment rendered by the NPA," he said. "Aguinaldo has been accused of many crimes against the people... (including) the torture and killing of personnel suspected of being in the revolutionary movement."

Nueva Ecija Rep. Carlos Padilla said government negotiators should have called off the peace talks with the communists last month after the assassination of Quezon Rep. Marcial Punzalan.

"It was the right thing to do...," he said. "If this had happened on their (communists) side, they would have suspended peace talks, too, just like in the past."

Padilla said the government must first get a firm commitment from NDF chairman Jose Ma. Sison that the NPA would stop armed offensives before the government returns to the negotiating table.

"Aguinaldo was not an ordinary citizen, he was a leader of the government," he said. "Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the politics of Aguinaldo, because I too was a victim of martial rule, but the NDF would have cried out human rights violation if one of their leaders were arrested or killed. Human rights are not compartmentalized (in the NDF’s favor)," he said.

The ambush-slaying of Punzalan and Aguinaldo reflects the NDF’s insincerity in holding peace talks with the government, he added.

On the other hand, Sen. Renato Cayetano supported yesterday Mrs. Arroyo’s decision to recall the government panel holding peace talks with the NDF in Oslo.

Cayetano, chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, said the action of Mrs. Arroyo was a "correct and appropriate" expression of protest over the killing of Aguinaldo.– Lito Salatan, Jaime Laude, Jose Aravilla, Marichu Villanueva, Jess Diaz, Efren Danao, Paolo Romero, Benjie Villa