The possible involvement of the New People's Army and personal grudges are among the angles being eyed by the police, as having triggered the killing of a former member of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers in Manapla, Negros Occidental.

Senior Supt. Charles Calima, provincial police director of Negros Occidental, yesterday said they have no evidence to link the NPA to the killing of Sanito Bargamento, a rebel returnee.

Calima, however, said Bargamento may have some enemies as he was armed when he was shot dead by a lone assailant. Alarmed by the killings of militant activists in Negros Occidental, Governor Joseph Marañon yesterday called on law enforcement agencies to give priority to the solution of the murder cases.

Priest-turned-rebel Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the National Democratic Front negotiating panel, tagged the military with being behind the death of Bargamento on Sept. 1 and also that of his brother, Edwin, also an NFSW organizer, who was also murdered in Hacienda Emma. Brgy. Tortosa, Manapla, on April 13 last year.

Col. Gregorio Fajardo, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, also said he believes the killing of Bargamento could have been triggered by personal grudges, as he was armed at the time.

For us, he's a clean guy, Fajardo said, dismissing as baseless the claims of Jalandoni that the military was behind his death. Bargamento, who was shot dead on Friday in Brgy. Tortosa, Manapla, was the seventh victim in the spate of killings since April in Negros Occidental, police records show.

Police investigations showed that Bargamento, who, NFSW said, was among their former organizers, sustained gunshot wounds in the neck and head.

The Manapla police recovered three empty shells of a .45 caliber pistol from the scene of the incident.

The shells were endorsed to the Crime Laboratory, to match them with those recovered from the areas where Edwin and Manuel Batolina, also an NFSW organizer were killed, in Manapla last year.

Marañon yesterday called on the police to give priority to finding those responsible for the killing of Sanito Bargamento. I condole with the family of Bargamento and call on the agencies concerned to give his family justice, the governor said.*GPB

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