FBI agents on Thursday investigated the shooting...

FBI agents on Thursday investigated the shooting of an anti-Marcos newspaper executive in Glendale to determine whether it was an act of terrorism, while a leading congressman said there was “a very strong presumption” that the Philippine government was behind the slaying.

FBI agents on Thursday investigated the shooting of an anti-Marcos newspaper executive in Glendale to determine whether it was an act of terrorism, while a leading congressman said there was “a very strong presumption” that the Philippine government was behind the slaying.

Oscar Salvatierra, 41, was killed Wednesday by a gunman who entered his home in Glendale and shot him several times--one day after he received a letter threatening his life at the Los Angeles offices of the Philippine News.

FBI agents on Thursday investigated the shooting of an anti-Marcos newspaper executive in Glendale to determine whether it was an act of terrorism, while a leading congressman said there was “a very strong presumption” that the Philippine government was behind the slaying.

Oscar Salvatierra, 41, was killed Wednesday by a gunman who entered his home in Glendale and shot him several times--one day after he received a letter threatening his life at the Los Angeles offices of the Philippine News.

Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) said in Washington that he thought there was “a very strong presumption here that the government of the Philippines was behind this assassination. It appears that they’ve decided to export their death squad activity from the Philippines to the United States.”

White House Deputy Press Secretary Edward Djerejian, traveling with President Reagan on Air Force One, said Thursday, “We consider this to be shocking and we are investigating it vigorously.”

Police interviewed friends and relatives of Salvatierra on Thursday. FBI agents were trying to discover if any federal crimes, including terrorism, had occurred in Salvatierra’s slaying, said FBI spokesman Bob Mott in Washington.

“He died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head,” senior coroner’s investigator Bob Dambacher said Thursday after an autopsy, but details on the number of bullet wounds and the caliber of ammunition were withheld.

On Feb. 14, Salvatierra appeared as a spokesman for the Philippine News, a nationally distributed San Francisco-based weekly newspaper, on KNBC-TV. He discussed violence in his homeland during balloting for President Ferdinand Marcos and opposition leader Corazon Aquino.

“I’m afraid there’s going to be a lot of killings, a lot of violence. A lot of opposition leaders will either have to be put in jail or killed to prevent the will of the people (from being) expressed,” he said.

The threatening letter was postmarked the previous day. The cut-and-paste letter declared, “So for your crimes, you are sentenced to death by execution.”

“Why me?” Salvatierra had asked after looking at the letter, said Ernie Paraiso, office manager for the news bureau.

Aquino said in a statement in Manila on Thursday that she was “deeply saddened” by the slaying.

“That the murder occurred thousands of miles away from home does not diminish my concern at all, because he died as many others of his countrymen did--in defense of truth, freedom, justice and democracy,” she said.

Stan Aragon, sales manager for the newspaper, also received a mailed threat Tuesday. It read only: “You’re next.” He was under police protection Thursday.

Glendale Police Agent Christopher Loop said he was unable to confirm reports that Salvatierra’s many business connections might be another motive for the slaying.

He was involved in food importing and other enterprises, according to political worker Tim Dayonot.

At a noon rally in downtown Los Angeles calling for a boycott of businesses with ties to the Marcos government, demonstration organizer Danny Lamila, head of the Benigno Aquino Movement, said he received two death threats about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“I took it seriously,” Lamila said. “What they want is to silence us. (But) they’re not going to stop us.”

The movement is an anti-Marcos group named after the slain husband of opposition leader Corazon Aquino.

Shortly after Salvatierra opened the Philippine News bureau last June, he discovered a bomb in his desk. Police successfully removed it.

Salvatierra had started his job with the newspaper only 11 months before his death, and his job was to increase circulation and advertising, Managing Editor Ed Diokno said. Salvatierra never trained, or intended, to be a journalist, Diokno added.

Last year the Philippine News filed for protection under bankruptcy laws, blaming the Marcos regime for intimidating advertisers.

Still, some associates said they were surprised that Salvatierra could have been slain in connection with anything political.

“He is not a big shot in the anti-Marcos movement,” Ernie Delfin, a columnist for the Los Angeles-based Philippine-American News, said Wednesday.

In fact, Salvatierra’s activism in the large California Filipino-American community was chiefly directed toward getting equal treatment of Filipino immigrants with professional skills, and less toward organizing sentiments against Marcos.

Salvatierra and the San Francisco-based law firm Public Advocates fought the state Board of Accountancy’s rules making Filipinos retake accounting exams in the United States. He won the lawsuit.

“As a result of Oscar’s action, Filipino CPAs in California increased about twelve-fold,” Robert Gnaizda, head of Public Advocates, said Wednesday.

“He had an obsession against injustice . . . and you could see where that would lead him,” said Dayonot, an aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. who spent “hundreds of hours” talking to Salvatierra. “He became more involved in the past few years in the anti-Marcos movement. He was just a person who was opposed to any injustice.”

Alex Esclamado, publisher of the Philippine News, which claims a circulation of 77,000 in the United States and Canada, said he is convinced that Salvatierra’s death. “As a result of Oscar’s action, Filipino CPAs in California increased about twelve-fold,” Robert Gnaizda, head of Public Advocates, said Wednesday.

“He had an obsession against injustice . . . and you could see where that would lead him,” said Dayonot, an aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. who spent “hundreds of hours” talking to Salvatierra. “He became more involved in the past few years in the anti-Marcos movement. He was just a person who was opposed to any injustice.”

Alex Esclamado, publisher of the Philippine News, which claims a circulation of 77,000 in the United States and Canada, said he is convinced that Salvatierra’s death.