Gunmen Wound University President, Kill Attorney in Ambush of Car in Manila

Gunmen on Tuesday ambushed the car of a university president, wounding him and killing a companion.

The gunmen, in two vehicles, attacked the car of Nemesio Prudente, president of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, as he and three associates were leaving the home of Rep. Pablo Ocampo, Police Capt. Rodolfo Diaz said.

Alex Marteja, an attorney for the university, was killed and Prudente was wounded in the arms and thigh, police and hospital sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The two others escaped with minor injuries.

Ocampo said Prudente had gone to his home for a meeting with Manila’s police chief, Brig. Gen. Alfredo Lim, to discuss recent police raids on the university’s campus. The congressman said the four left after Lim failed to appear.

Thirty-nine people living on the campus were arrested in raids last week. Police charged that the 39 were Communist rebels, but Prudente and human rights groups said they were peasants who sought refuge from right-wing vigilante groups.

No one was reported to have claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s shootings.

Meanwhile, on Mindanao Island, the local chapter of the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the Communist rebels in the Philippines, issued a warning to U.S. businesses.

“We also warn all oppressive and exploitative multinational corporations and plantations, specifically U.S. businesses . . . against committing further depredations and causing misery and hardships on the Filipino people,” the statement said.

The Del Monte and Dole brand fruit companies maintain extensive plantations on Mindanao, 500 miles south of Manila.