Police free alleged Kintanar slay accomplices

Authorities are now focusing their probe on a ranking government official and two other employees who reportedly acted as accomplices in the Jan. 23 assassination of former New People’s Army (NPA) chieftain Romulo Kintanar.

Without mentioning names, Chief Superintendent Romeo Maganto, Task Force Kintanar chief, said the government official met with communist guerrilla spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal in the same restaurant where the former NPA leader was gunned down.

"Our asset had spotted the official meeting with Ka Roger in Metro Manila three days before Kintanar was murdered," Maganto told a newsforum held at the Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City yesterday.

The informer, however, was not certain on the topic of discussion between Rosal and the government official, he said.

Four days after the killing, Rosal made an announcement admitting an NPA liquidation squad carried out the killing.

Rosal claimed the NPA carried out the death sentence on Kintanar after being found guilty of counterrevolutionary crimes by the revolutionary movement’s "people’s court."

Even as the NPA owned up to the killing, President Arroyo named Maganto to head the task force to investigate the murder of Kintanar.

Maganto revealed their initial investigation also indicated Kintanar was set up by the two government employees.

Maganto described the suspects as fellow comrades and "trusted friends" of Kintanar. The two became traitors to Kintanar and helped his killers set up the murder. – Romel Bagares