Reds admit killing Isabela town mayor

CAMP ADDURU, Tuguegarao City — The Benito Tesorio Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) has admitted assassinating the mayor of Jones, Isabela the other day, claiming that he owed "blood debts" to the people.

The NPA unit released a statement owning up to the killing of Mayor Jesus Sebastian, 57, a few hours after three fatigue-clad men, who introduced themselves as communist guerrillas, shot him with M-16 Armalite rifles while he was walking to his office Monday morning.

Police said Sebastian had just come from the flag-raising ceremony in front of the town hall when he was slain.

Sebastian, who sustained three gunshot wounds — one in the head and two in the body — was rushed to a nearby clinic and later to the Cagayan Valley Sanitarium Hospital in Santiago City where he was declared dead on arrival.

Chief Superintendent Dominador Resos Jr., Cagayan Valley police director, said the three NPA hit men escaped detection because they posed as military men.

The town hall is just a few meters away from a detachment of the Army’s 502nd Infantry Brigade in Barangay Balabal.

Witnesses recalled seeing the three hit men among at least eight fatigue-clad armed men in the vicinity of the municipal hall just before the killing.

The rebels reportedly arrived on board a green Mitsubishi L-300 van but fled on foot after the incident.

Resos has relieved Senior Inspector Edward Cara, Jones police chief.

In its statement, the Benito Tesorio Command claimed that Sebastian was guilty of human rights abuses, graft and corruption and involvement in illegal logging.

The NPA unit also rapped the mayor for forming a CAFGU (Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit) in the municipality.

Sebastian, it further alleged, maintained several armed bodyguards who had terrorized residents perceived to be against his administration.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina has instructed the Philippine National Police to pursue Sebastian’s assassins.

The League of Municipalities of the Philippines, led by its president, Mayor Ramon Guico of Binalonan, Pangasinan, condemned the killing. — With Jaime Laude and Perseus Echeminada