A leftist activist was shot dead on Wednesday while
sleeping inside a passenger bus in the Philippines, police said.
The bus was on a stopover in a terminal in the town of Aritao in
Nueva Vizcaya province, 180 kilometres north of Manila, when two
gunmen boarded it and shot Randy Malayao, 49.
Other passengers alighted the bus to get snacks, but Malayao was
sleeping in his seat when he was shot, said Chief Superintendent Jose
Mario Espino, a regional police director.
The suspects fired two shots at Malayao, killing him on the spot,
before fleeing on a motorcycle, he added.
Malayao was once a committee secretary for the rebel Communist Party
of the Philippines (CPP). He was arrested in 2003 for the murder of a
congressman and his aide in 2001, but was later cleared by a local
court.
He has been helping the CPP's peace negotiating panel with the
government, but President Rodrigo Duterte terminated the talks in
November 2017.
Efforts to resume the talks have failed amid escalating attacks by
the guerrillas.
Communist rebels have been fighting the Philippine government since
the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running
leftist insurgencies in Asia.
Leftist and human rights groups condemned the killing and alleged
that government security forces could be behind the murder.
"We see no other motive and possible perpetrators," leftist alliance
Bayan said in a statement. "His death is clearly linked to his
involvement in the peace talks and his other advocacies as a social
activist."
