PNP tags Reds in killing of 'asset' in Tacloban City

Police are blaming the New People's Army (NPA) for the murder of a member of the Philippine Guardians Brotherhood, Inc. (PGBI) last July 20 in Tacloban City. In a statement released Thursday, Director Geary Barias, commander of Task Force USIG, said the killing of Rogelio Picoy at the Tacloban City Supermarket "is believed to have been carried out by a liquidation sent by the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee" of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA. Quoting Tacloban City Police director Superintendent Romulo Taboso, Barias said Picoy was killed in retaliation to the death three days earlier in the same city of Charlie Solayao, his former colleague in a Left-leaning group. Police have earlier described Picoy as an "asset." "Picoy's wife, Nita, herself also a former member of the underground movement, revealed that her husband had long been at odds with Solayao over the finances of their former organization," Barias said. Taboso reported to Barias that Picoy and Solayao were former members of "the Left-wing peasant group KADAMAY," and were also "among the organizers of the Katipunan ng mga Gudti Nga Magtirinda or Kaguma, an organization of vendors in Tacloban City." Their difference over financial issues of their former organization was aggravated when Picoy left the Organization Bureau of the CPP/NPA in 2006 to join the PGBI and become a police informant, Barias quoted Nita to have said. "Solayao later learned that Picoy had been passing information to authorities about the activities of their organization, and that Picoy had supplied authorities with video footage of Solayao's underground activities," said Barias. Because of this, Barias said the underground organization believed that Picoy had directly participated in the assassination of Solayao. A special team from Task Force USIG is now conducting a separate investigation into Solayao's murder. Police, however, have yet to arrest any of the four motorcycle-riding suspects who gunned down Picoy from his back. The findings in the Picoy murder case is just one of the many cases the authorities say is part of the NPA's alleged purging activities. - GMANews.TV