6 Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade hitmen charged

Police filed murder and frustrated murder charges yesterday against six alleged communist hitmen who ambushed and killed a driver of a Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) official and seriously wounded his son in San Pedro, Laguna on Feb. 2.

Charged before the San Pedro, Laguna prosecutor’s office were Chivas Gerona, alias Sniper; Mateo Crisanto, alias Pokpok, and Jessie Oro, all members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB), and three still unidentified men.

Assistant provincial prosecutor Clarence Gaite is still studying whether to file the charges in court.

Calabarzon police director Chief Superintendent Perfecto Palad said Marilyn Agbay acted as a complainant for her slain husband, Johnny Agbay, a driver-bodyguard of Roberto Esquivel, head of the MMDA’s sidewalk clearing operations group.

Rodrigo Esquivel, who rushed his nephew Romar Mico, 14, to the hospital, acted as a witness in the frustrated murder case.

The witnesses identified Gerona, Cristanto and Oro as among the six gunmen who strafed Esquivel’s Mitsubishi Pajero less than 800 meters away from his house at Barangay San Vicente.

The suspects left behind several leaflets stating that members of the Partisano (Armadong Operatiba ng Partidong Marxista-Leninista ng Pilipinas) were out to punish the elder Esquivel, whom they called “berdugo (hatchet man).”

Palad said they are still trying to determine whether the three suspects are active RPA-ABB members.

Gerona is a brother of Randy Gerona, an RPA-ABB member who was stabbed dead by his colleagues in the Metro Manila District Jail in Bicutan, Taguig City last Jan. 6.

Investigators said the attack could have been planned because the victims were already planning to bolt out of the revolutionary group.

During the Estrada administration, the RPA-ABB and its political ally, the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas (RPMP), publicly announced its intention to make peace with the government.

Nilo de la Cruz of the Alex Boncayao Brigade, together with the leader of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army, Arturo Tabara, engaged in peace negotiations with both the Estrada administration and RPA-ABB National Commander Carapali Lualhati. An interim peace agreement was signed between the government and the RPMP, RPA and ABB in 2000.

The truce did not prevent the ABB from claiming responsibility for attacks on the Manila and Makati offices of Citibank, Shell Oil and Petron later that year. The ABB was included in the US state department’s list of terrorist groups in 2001. – Non Alquitran, Ed Amoroso