Ex-agrarian reform officer killed in Leyte

TACLOBAN CITY — Motorcycle-riding men gunned down a former municipal agrarian reform officer, who was active in militant groups, in front of his residence here Thursday night.

The victim, Paquito Diaz, was the president of the Eastern Visayas Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) and co-chairman of Alyansang Makabayan here.

Diaz was attacked in front of his house along Esperas Avenue here at about 6:30 p.m. while reportedly waiting for a friend.

He sustained two bullet wounds in the left eye and chest from a caliber .45 automatic. He died while being rushed to the Bethany Hospital here.

Diaz is reportedly the third leader of militant government employees’ groups slain nationwide under the Arroyo administration.

Diaz was recently dismissed as the municipal agrarian reform officer of Isabel, Leyte due to his absence without official leave. His appeal was still pending with the agrarian reform secretary’s office.

Chief Superintendent Eliseo de la Paz, Eastern Visayas police director, has formed Task Force Diaz to go after the agrarian reform officer’s killers, according to Superintendent Anacleto Limbo, Tacloban police chief.

Limbo, however, said artist sketches of Diaz’s attackers could not be made at present because witnesses could not fully give a description of the triggerman since he was wearing a helmet.

But Limbo assured Diaz’s family that the police were doing everything to unmask the perpetrators of what he described as a "well-planned" attack.

He said they would ask the help of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to solve the killing.

Diaz was the 24th militant leader in Eastern Visayas killed since October 2004. All cases, however, have remained unsolved. — With Katherine Adraneda