Suspected rebs gun down ex-Army major linked to Dulag slay

TARLAC CITY -- A discharged Army officer, who was implicated in the murder of Ifugao tribal leader Macli-ing Dulag during the Marcos regime, was gunned down by suspected communist rebels here last Tuesday.

Former Maj. Leodegario Adalem, 48, a member of the Philippine Military Academy's Class 1975, was riddled with caliber .45 bullets at the gate of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) provincial office in Barangay Matatalaib here at about 11 a.m.

His driver-aide, 35-year-old Tomas Pangilinan, said to be an "asset" of the National Bureau of Investigation, died while being rushed to the Ramos General Hospital.

Adalem and Pangilinan were on board a Toyota Corolla, with license plate UEV-278, when they were attacked by at least six gunmen.

Adalem had just submitted his bidding documents for some project components of the NIA's multibillion-peso Balog-Balog dam project in San Jose town, when he was killed.

According to a report released by Superintendent Tito Bayangos, the city's police chief, the gunmen flagged down Adalem's vehicle as it was about to exit from the gate of the NIA provincial office. The gunmen frisked and ordered the three security guards at the gate to lie face down on the ground.

One of the gunmen shouted, "Huwag kayong makialam, mga NPA kami. Si Adalem lang ang kailangan namin (Don't interfere, we are NPAs. We only want Adalem)." At that instance, his companions opened fire at Adalem and Pangilinan.

Police said the gunmen, believed to be members of the New People's Army's Tarlac-based hit squad, the Santiago-De Guzman Brigade, took Adalem's caliber .45 pistol.

The gunmen, described to be in their early 20's, fled on foot after the killing.

Police investigators recovered at the crime scene nine spent caliber .45 shells and nine slugs.

Superintendent Maximo Calimlim, Tarlac police director, has ordered a manhunt for the killers.

Adalem gained notoriety at the height of the Marcos regime after his Army unit was tagged as behind the murder of Dulag, an Ifugao tribal leader who led his fellow tribesmen in opposing the Chico Dam project. Since then, Adalem has been in the NPA's hit list.

Shortly after the 1986 EDSA Revolution, Adalem went AWOL (absent without official leave) from the military service. He was accused of taking with him several military-issued high-powered firearms.

Adalem, who had earned the moniker "Rambo," ran for mayor of Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija in the 1998 elections, but lost.

Police had raided his house at Filomena Subdivision in Barangay San Rafael here several times, the latest of which was in mid-1999 when several unlicensed high-powered firearms were seized. -- With Mike Frialde