MANILA – A National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant was shot dead while inside a passenger bus in Nueva Vizcaya province on Wednesday morning.
Randy Malayao was shot dead by an assailant that boarded his ride when it stopped in Aritao town around 2 a.m. on Jan. 30, Nueva Vizcaya police director Chief Inspector Giovanni Cejes said.
Cejes added that Malayao, 39, boarded the bus in Quezon City and was supposed to get off in Santiago, Isabela but was shot dead. The gunman escaped on board a bus driven by a cohort.
Malayao, a former leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Cagayan Valley, was arrested in Cainta, Rizal in 2008. He was accused and later acquitted of involvement in the 2001 killing of Cagayan Rep. Rodolfo Aguinaldo.
Before peace talks between the government and the NDFP collapsed in 2017 continuing rebel attacks against state troops when negotiations were ongoing, Malayao attended the negotiations in Europe.
NDFP legal consultant Edre Olalia, in a statement, condemned the incident and branded it as part of a series of attacks meant to “get those who fight the oppressive and exploitative system and who work for fundamental change fast and quick.”
“It hits you and you mourn, makes you momentarily catatonic with the shock of unbelievable,” Olalia said in a statement. “But Randy, we will one day wake up to the dawn of hope because the nights of rage will usher a morn of justice.”/PN
