Communist leader cleared in former lawmaker's slay

CAMP MELCHOR DE LA CRUZ, Gamu, Isa­bela , Philippines  – A regional trial court cleared the other day a ranking communist leader of charges in connection with the 2001 killing of former Cagayan representative Rodolfo Aguinaldo. 

The Army’s 5th Infantry Division (ID) based here, which filed a murder case against Randy Malayao for the killing of Aguinaldo, said that they lost the case after key witnesses in the said killing failed to show up even during the proceedings conducted by the prosecutor’s office in Cagayan.

Malayao was reportedly the spokesman of Cagayan Valley’s Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) at the time of his capture by joint Army-police operatives in Rizal province two years ago.

In a decision handed on Friday, RTC Judge Djezarine Aquino of Branch 5 (Cagayan) acquitted Malayao of charges in the Aguinaldo killing for lack of probable cause or insufficient evidence to link him in the case. 

Despite his exoneration, Malayao, it was learned, continued to be detained at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Cagayan due to pending cases of direct assault with murder filed against him in Isabela. 

Besides being a spokesman, Malayao, was also tagged by the Army as deputy secretary and education department chief of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s Northeast Luzon Regional Party Committee, formerly Cagayan Valley Regional Party Committee. 

“We have strong evidences linking Malayao to the case. However, these were all not presented in the court as Aguinaldo’s wife and eyewitnesses have already withdrawn from the case even during the (initial court) proceedings for still unknown reasons,” lamented Col. Loreto Magundayao, chief of the 5th ID’s civil-military relations battalion. 

A former Constabulary colonel, Aguinaldo, who also served as Cagayan governor for three terms, was shot dead by at least two suspects in front of his rented apartment in Tuguegarao City on June 12, 2001.