Philippine gov't condemns killing of mayor, son by alleged leftist group

The Philippine government condemned Tuesday the killing of a mayor and his son by suspected members of the leftist New People's Army (NPA) in southern province of Agusan del Sur.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this cowardly act," said Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. in a news briefing in Malacanang, the presidential palace.

The bodies of Mayor Dario Otaza of Loreto town in Agusan del Sur and that of his son, Daryl, were recovered hogtied with multiple gunshot wounds in Bitan-agan village, Butuan City on Tuesday morning. They were abducted from their home by armed group, who pretended to be members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Monday night.

Undersecretary Emmanuel Bautista, executive director of Cabinet Cluster on Security, Justice and Peace, said it was only the NPA which had the motive to kill Otaza, who received death threat before.

Otaza, a member of the Manobo tribe, was a former NPA and one of the prominent indigenous peoples' leaders in Agusan del Sur who had caused the surrender of hundreds of former leftist rebels, he said.

The 4,000-strong NPA has been waging war against the government for over four decades. Endit