Ex-NPA, ABB member who turned pastor killed in Negros Occidental

BACOLOD City, Philippines—A former member of a breakaway faction from the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army was shot and killed on Sunday by suspected NPA rebels while heading home in Cauayan town, 119.9 kilometers south of this city.

Timoteo Salazar, 54, was on board his motorcycle about 10:30 a.m. when three men armed with M-16 assault rifles and believed to be NPA rebels, fired at him in Sitio (settlement) Calapnisan, Barangay (village) Inayawan, Cauayan.

First Lieutenant Rey Balibagoso, 47th Infantry Battalion Civil Military Operation officer, said Salazar, 54, used to be a member of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) and later became a pastor.

He was the second former RPA-ABB member who was killed by the NPA in two months. Rigor Escura was killed in Cauayan town in July, military records showed.

Senior Police Officer 4 Alvin Cuenca, Cauayan deputy police chief, said Salazar, a minister of the religious sect “Dios Na Amahan,” was on his way home on board a motorcycle with two others after officiating at a religious ceremony when they were waylaid by the three unidentified armed men.

Salazar, who was driving the motorcycle, was shot while he was trying to evade the armed men.

His two companions—one of them his nephew who were riding in tandem with him— managed to escape unharmed, Cuenca said.’

Salazar suffered a gunshot wound in the forehead, and three in the body.

Before he became a minister, Salazar used to be an NPA member who later joined the RPA-ABB, which split from the Communist Party of the Philippines, Cuenca said.