Army Officer Slain in Manila; 3 More Held in GI Killings

Suspected Communist rebels killed an army officer Friday in Manila’s escalating “war of the streets,” and police announced three more arrests in the slayings of three U.S. servicemen.

Also on Friday, about 4,000 leftists marched near the presidential palace to mark the first anniversary of the unsolved assassination of labor leader Rolando Olalia. The march took place without serious incident.

In the latest killing, four gunmen ambushed Lt. Col. Nepomuceno Corpuz as he sat in his car at a traffic light, police said. The killers then commandeered a civilian jeep and escaped.

The Evening Star newspaper quoted police as saying the gunmen fired at close range and shouted to pedestrians, “Don’t be afraid. We’re the NPA,” referring to the Communist New People’s Army.

It was the third fatal ambush this week on the streets of the Philippine capital. Victims have included soldiers, leftists and rightists.

Communist rebels have been blamed for killing more than 130 police and soldiers in Manila this year. Philippine newspapers speculate that right-wing death squads have been organized for reprisals.

In Angeles City, 50 miles north of the capital, police Maj. Efren Alamares told reporters that a woman and two men were arrested Thursday night during raids on suspected Communist hide-outs near the U.S.-run Clark Air Base.

Alamares said the three were believed to have taken part in the Oct. 28 slayings of three U.S. servicemen outside the base.

Three others also were being held, but none has been charged.