'No politics in killing of Noynoy volunteer'

MEXICO, Pampanga , Philippines  – Police yesterday said politics has been ruled out in the killing of the district coordinator of the Noynoy Aquino for President Movement (NAPM) and pointed to the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB), a communist guerrilla faction, as the likely culprit.

The RHB, however, has denied involvement in the killing of NAPM officer Marciliano Dizon, even sending a letter to his family expressing hope for the immediate solution of the case.

But Senior Superintendent Gil Lebin, Pampanga police director, told The STAR that his investigators are zeroing in on Dizon’s past involvement with the RHB, noting that in 2004, he survived an ambush allegedly by members of the rebel group.

“He flew abroad because of that ambush,” Lebin said.

Lebin said politics has been ruled out as the Liberal Party, which has Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III as standard-bearer, did not field any candidate against this town’s incumbent mayor, Teddy Tumang, of Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

But NAPM chief operations officer for Pampanga Sandy Quiwa Bansil insisted that politics was the motive behind the killing of Dizon whom she had recruited to be the NAPM coordinator for this province’s third district covering the City of San Fernando, Bacolor, Sta. Ana, Arayat and this town.