‘We surrender’

"We surrender," Panfilo Villaruel shouted seconds before he was killed in a drama live on radio amd television complete with gunfire and groans in the background.

When it was over minutes later, the bodies of the former Air Transportation Office chief and his aide, Navy Lt. (sg) Richard Gatchillar, were brought down from the control tower of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal II covered with yellow blankets.

Blood dripped onto the floor of a van and the street. One pair of feet wore brown socks. The other was bare.

Villaruel, a 60-year-old former pilot and Philippine Air Force colonel, was being interviewed on the cellular phone by dzBB radio talk show host Arnold Clavio at around 2:30 a.m. when gunshots rang out.

"We are being killed here," Villaruel said. "They’re going to kill us. We surrender." Those were his last words. The supposed gunbattle lasted only five minutes.

Radio stations said Villaruel called them after he stormed into the building around midnight to complain about graft and his personal grudges with the government.

However, he did not cite any specific case of corruption, saying "you only have to read the papers."

Villaruel also condemned a government decision he claimed halted a plane and helicopter design program he had initiated when he was the ATO chief.

"We are not terrorists," Villaruel said on live radio. "If I don’t do this, there will never be any change in the way the government is run."

Josephine Lichauco, a former transportation department official who knew Villaruel, said on television he had often voiced concerns to her about widespread corruption. She also questioned whether police had needed to kill the two men.

"He loved this country very much and he was heartbroken over the GMA (Arroyo) government and the corruption going on right now," she said.

Sources at the defense department told Reuters that Villaruel tried several times without success to meet Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita to air his feelings about corruption.

Security and airport officials said the SWAT team had to storm the tower because there was a flight from the United States due before dawn. As they assessed the damage, the airport’s back-up control tower was directing traffic.

"The situation is back to normal," Col. Efren Labiang, chief of an airport police unit, told Reuters late Saturday morning. "There’s no need to worry for those who want to travel."

Several of the control tower’s windows were shattered by bullets.

Police officials denied that the Villaruel and Gatchillar were killed while surrendering.

Senior Superintendent Andres Caro, chief of the Philippine National Police-Aviation Security Group, told ABS-CBN television that Villaruel and Gatchiliar fired first.

The officers were also forced to fire because Gatchillar was allegedly holding a grenade, Caro added.

"We are being murdered here, my friend. I surrender. I surrender," Villaruel screamed in a telephone call to Clavio as police launched their assault.

Clavio was heard over the radio and GMA-7 television telling his reporter at the site to inform Caro that Villaruel and Gatchiliar were giving up. "Tell the people below, Colonel Villaruel is surrendering."

But it was too late.

A brief burst of gunfire rang out seconds later. Villaruel cried out, apparently hit, followed by labored breathing. Then there was only silence.

Clavio tried to raise Villaruel on the cellular phone but got nothing. — Sandy Araneta, Reuters, AP, AFP