BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya -- National Democratic Front Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randy Felix P. Malayao was shot dead inside a bus in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya before dawn Wednesday, the Cagayan Valley Region police said.
Investigators said Malayao, 49, was on board a Victory Liner bus, which made a stop at CCQ bus stop at 2:30 a.m. in Aritao town, when a gunman reportedly boarded, approached the sleeping victim and shot him at close range, according to witnesses.
The victim died on the spot while the gunman fled on board a black motorcycle.
"We will immediately form a task force to solve the killing of Malayao as we condemn any act of atrocities," Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino, Cagayan Valley regional police director, told reporters on Wednesday.
Malayao was on his way back to his hometown in San Pablo, Isabela from Manila when the attack took place.
Malayao attended formal peace negotiations in Europe as a consultant from Cagayan Valley prior to the cancellation of the peace talks. He also acted as one of the spokespersons of the NDFP Negotiating Panel in Europe.
He represented the NDFP in peace forums abroad and in the country, along with government negotiators Secretary Silvestre Bello III, lawyer Angela Librado Trinidad and others.
Malayao was a former political prisoner, spent more than four years in jails in Cagayan and Isabela provinces, and was freed after he had been acquitted of the charges against him.
Bello once served as Malayao’s legal counsel when he was then in private practice.
A writer-contributor of various local publications and former college publication editor-in-chief, Malayao earned his Bachelor of Science in Fisheries degree from the University of the Philippines Visayas-Miag-ao in the 1990s. (PNA)
