NPA kills Mindoro Occidental deputy police directo

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna — A hit man of the New People’s Army (NPA) gunned down the deputy police director of Mindoro Occidental Tuesday morning, authorities said.

Superintendent Winston Eber—sole, 55, was about to board his owner-type jeep in front of his house in Barangay Labangan when the gunman shot him in the chest and head, according to Chief Superintendent Domingo Reyes, Southern Tagalog police director.

The Associated Press said the NPA claimed responsibility for the killing, saying Ebersole "was punished for his blood debts."

An NPA spokesman, Victor Rivero, alleged in a statement that Ebersole had a hand in the killing in the 1980s of farmer-activists and some guerrilla leaders, AP said. — Arnell Ozaeta