8 ‘ex-communist assassins’ charged for labor leader’s slaying (7 years ago)

[Omaha Steve]

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080218-119693/8-ex-communist-assassins-charged-for-labor-leaders-slay

By Marlon Ramos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:29:00 02/18/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- More than seven years after his killing, police filed a criminal case against eight suspected former communist rebels, including two women, for the murder of prominent labor leader Felimon “Popoy” Lagman, an official said Monday.

Agents of the Quezon City Police District-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU) are likewise set to file murder charges against four men who purportedly masterminded the killing of Abra Representative Luis “Chito” Bersamin who was shot dead in front of Mt. Carmel Church in Quezon City on December 16, 2006.

Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the QCPD-CIDU, said those charged for the murder of Lagman were former members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB).

He said the eight have been detained in separate police jails in Taguig City after they were arrested for a different case in San Pedro, Laguna last January.

Mabanag said the suspects were no longer with the communist movement at the time they were arrested and were already members of an organized crime gang involved in assassinations, robberies and other nefarious activities. He did not elaborate on the evidence they gathered against the suspects, saying they were doing additional investigative work on the case.

He said they had yet to unmask who ordered the suspects to kill the chairman and founder of the labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino.

FULL story at link.