GMA orders manhunt for killers of Tayug mayor

President Arroyo ordered yesterday the manhunt for the killers of Tayug Mayor Guerrero Zaragoza, believed to be hitmen of the New People’s Army (NPA).

"We sympathize with the family of Mayor Zaragoza and his companions and we assure them that the government will leave no stone unturned in the conduct of the investigation and in hunting down the perpetrators," the President said during the inauguration of the Pasig River Re-Development project in Intramuros, Manila.

In Tayug, Pangasinan, the police and the military have joined hands in charting operations for the immediate arrest of communist rebels suspected of killing the mayor on Sunday.

Police Senior Supt. Mario Sandiego, provincial police director, told The STAR that they met yesterday morning in Balungao town with Major General Alberto Braganza, commanding general of the 7th Infantry Division, Col. Jovenal Narcise, Army Brigade Commander of 702 Infantry Brigade, and 48th Infantry Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Pol Dario to synchronize their operations against the perpetrators.

Sandiego said their forces are now deployed in areas where they believe the suspects are hiding.

"While we can’t categorically say that they were the ones who killed the mayor, there is a very strong indication that they are responsible for it," he said.

Their suspicion that the NPAs are behind the murder is based on a November 2002 encounter with the NPA dissidents in Eastern Pangasinan wherein a document showed Zaragoza was on their hit list. One of the arrested suspects had a photo of the mayor in his wallet.