3 NPA members face raps for Llamas killing

LEGAZPI CITY — Police said yesterday they have asked for criminal charges to be filed against three alleged communist rebels for the murder of Sotero Llamas, a prominent former comrade who left the movement to pursue a career in politics.

Llamas, a former senior leader of the New People’s Army (NPA), was assassinated by three motorcycle-riding gunmen in Barangay Tagas in Tabaco, Albay last May 29.

His companion, former councilor Marciano Bitara, was wounded in the attack.

The murder complaint against the three suspects, including alleged NPA members Edgardo Sevilla and Edgar Calag, was filed with the Tabaco prosecutor’s office, said Director Jesus Versoza, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. All three are at large.

"We have four witnesses who positively identified the suspects," said Felix Vargas, CIDG spokesman.

Asked about the background of the third unidentified suspect, Vargas said, "He must also be an NPA (member)."

Greg Bañares, Bicol spokesman of the National Democratic Front, however, denied that Sevilla and Calag were NPA members.

Maj. Ramon Ronald Rosario, Bicol spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Civil Relations Service, dismissed Bañares’ denial, saying the communist movement has always been quick to belie their members’ involvement when they consider such an action a blunder that would just put their organization in a bad light.

Llamas, former commander of the NPA forces in the Bicol region, was freed from jail to help the NDF, the rebels’ political wing, in unsuccessful peace talks with the government.

In 2004, he turned to local politics with an unsuccessful run for the governor’s post in Albay.

The NPA earlier blamed pro-government "death squads" for the murder of Llamas and several hundred other leftist figures over the past five years.

The government denied the charge, with military officials suggesting that at least some of the killings were the result of a bloody purge within the Maoist movement, which has been waging a 37-year armed campaign. — Cet Dematera, Cecille Suerte Felipe and AFP