Cops say alleged communist hit man shot self dead

The alleged leader of a communist guerrilla hit squad operating in Southern Tagalog shot himself in the head inside a van that was stopped at a police checkpoint in a Batangas town in what police on Tuesday said was a case of suicide driven by fear of being arrested.

Chief Insp. Manuel Castillo, police chief of Sto. Tomas, Batangas, said Edwin Villarin (real name Hernando Villarin Basiya), 34, was in a van with Samuel Bueser, former mayor of Alaminos, Laguna, and driver Reynaldo Atienza that was flagged down at a checkpoint in Barangay San Rafael near the exit of the Star Tollway.

Castillo said Bueser and Atienza had alighted from the van, a Toyota Grandia with license plate JOW-928, when a gunshot rang out from inside the vehicle. Policemen slid the van’s door open and found Villarin lying lifeless inside.

Bueser and Atienza were briefly held by police but released on Monday, Castillo said.

Villarin’s group is believed responsible for the assassination last July of former Batangas police intelligence chief Supt. Rodney Ramirez, two policemen in Balayan, Batangas, last May and four soldiers early this year, according to Capt. Gene Orense, spokesman of the 202nd Brigade.