Communist guerrilla leader killed near Manila

The death of Sotero Llamas is only the latest in a series of fatal attacks against the country's leftist separatist leaders. The identity of the perpetrators remains a mystery: some say police are responsible; others blame ideological purges by the Communists themselves .

Manila (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A Filipino ex Communist guerrilla leader was shot dead this morning by unidentified hitmen in the city of Tabaco, Bicol region, southeast of Manila.

The homicide of Sotero Llamas, killed in his car by two motorcyclists, was the latest in a series of fatal attacks against the country's Communist leaders. The two murderers had their face covered and they shot their target while in motion.

Superintendent Victor Poco, regional police chief, said the driver was wounded in the shooting. He added that there had been death threats against the Communist leader before but the police had not yet managed to identify who was behind the threats.

Llamas had been a longtime chief of the communist New People's Army (NPA) in Bicol, a stronghold of the red guerillas. He was captured by soldiers after a skirmish in 1995, but was later freed as part of peace talks between the communist rebels and the government that fell apart in 2004. Llamas continued to be involved in local political activities, and even ran for the post of provincial governor in 2004.

Some government officials said that together with other leftist leaders, he was involved in February's failed coup d'etat against the President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The country's Communist separatist groups claim that at least 94 of their members have been killed since 2001, the year Arroyo came into power, blaming the killings on the police and the army. But the government counters their claims by saying the reason for the deaths, "in the best Maoist tradition, are internal purges".

• PHILIPPINES
• communists
• guerrillas
• killing
• independence
• sotero
• llamas
• arroyo
• coup
• d'etat