German a suspect in slay of American in Pinatubo

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Police are eyeing Siegfried Whitman, a German national, as a possible suspect in the killing of Bryan Thomas Smith, an American, last Wednesday.

A reliable source here said that based on the statements of Whitman, he might have been the one who killed Smith in the alleged ambush that occurred at the foot of Mt. Pinatubo.

The source said that Whitman underwent a paraffin test last Friday to determine if he has gunpowder traces on his hands.

Last Wednesday, Smith and Whitman were allegedly ambushed while on their way up to the crater of Mt. Pinatubo.

Smith, 33, was killed while Whitman, 54, sustained gunshot wound in the right leg.

The two foreigners rented two motorbikes from a certain Franz in Angeles City but they left the motorbikes along the way because they could no longer use them to negotiate the rugged terrain to the Mt. Pinatubo crater.

After walking more than two hours, Whitman said they were fired upon by unidentified gunmen near the Sapang Uwak, Porac, Pampanga. Smith was already dead when Withman left him, according to the latter.

A Philippine Air Force (PAF) helicopter rescued Whitman on Thursday afternoon in a ravine near the slope of Mt. Pinatubo where he hid since the shooting. He is now confined at the Angeles University Foundation Medical Center where he was treated.

On Friday, the body of Smith was airlifted by UH-IH chopper to Clark and was turned over to United States embassy representatives.

Meanwhile, mainstream communist rebels operating in Central Luzon have vehemently denied allegations by authorities that their comrades in Porac, Pampanga were behind the Jan. 30 attack on the two foreign tourists.

Armando Ortilano, spokesman for the Palermo Ortanez Command of the communist-led New People’s Army (NPA) in the province of Pampanga, said it is unfair that police and military authorities "readily and quickly pointed to the (NPA) as the perpetrator of this deed."

Military authorities initially tagged NPA guerrillas as the culprit in the attack, but on Friday, Col. John Bolhayon of the 703rd IB said that there was only a lone gunman behind the incident, an Aeta expelled from the rebel movement over a rape case.

"There is no political basis, much less, political gain, in attacking two innocent (foreign) civilians trekking the mountains of Porac," said Ortilano, whose statement was further seconded by Salud Rojas, head of the public information desk of the Josepino Corpuz Command, the NPA’s regional command in Central Luzon. — With Benjie Villa