Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome, Tarlac police director, said a civilian witness positively identified NPA member Olivio Millo, alias Ka Red, as one of two motorcycle-riding men who gunned down Tirso Cruz, a director of the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU), with an M-16 rifle.
Cruz, together with his father and two brothers, was on his way home to Barangay Pando, Concepcion town at about 12:30 a.m. when he was shot dead.
Bartolome said the witness initially helped a police artist make a sketch of the gunman. But when shown pictures of people with criminal records, he pointed to Millo.
Bartolome said Millo, who remains at large, also faces other murder charges for the killings of a barangay captain in Pura, Tarlac last year and a barangay tanod in Barangay Cutcut, Capas town.
Cruz, according to militant groups, is the 67th activist slain in Central Luzon since last year.
Of the victims, 49 were killed last year, and 18 others, including Cruz, this year.
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) has blamed the killings on the military, particularly the Army’s 7th Infantry Division headed by Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.
According to the militant group, 12 people allied with the ULWU or the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) have been killed since the labor dispute at the Hacienda Luisita started in November 2004.
The victims included seven strikers who were killed in a violent dispersal at Gate 1 of the hacienda on Nov. 16; Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Tarlac leader Marcelino Beltran who was shot dead at the west gate of the hacienda last Dec. 8; Tarlac City councilor Abelardo Ladera who was slain last March 3; Bayan Muna’s Tarlac secretary general Florante Collantes who was killed in his home in Camiling, Tarlac last Oct. 15; and CATLU president Ricardo Ramos who also killed in his home in Barangay Mapalacsiao, Tarlac City last Oct. 25.
Bartolome said the charges against two soldiers tagged in Ramos’ killing were based on circumstantial evidence, but the Tarlac City prosecutor’s office found the case to "hold water."
Pfcs. Romeo Castillo and Roderick de la Cruz and three other 7th ID soldiers, all still unidentified, were named as respondents in the murder case.
Lawyer Nelson Palaris, of the Judge Advocate General’s Office (JAGO), the soldiers’ legal counsel, earlier told The STAR that his clients have not received any notice from the prosecutor’s office for a preliminary investigation.
"The prosecutor’s office was supposed to issue a resolution on the case within three months after the filing, but up to now we have not received any notice from (it)," Palaris said.