19 Charged in 3 U.S. Slayings in Philippines

Police filed murder charges today against 19 members of a Communist rebel cell that authorities believe planned and executed the Oct. 28 killings of three Americans near the U.S. Clark Air Base.

Authorities have four of the 19 in custody, including three who police said have agreed to testify against their comrades. Police hope to catch more in the next few days, police Maj. Efren Alamares said.

He said a fifth suspect, a woman in whose house the murder plot was allegedly hatched, has been allowed to return home but remains in custody of neighborhood officials.

Implicated in Slayings

The 19-page complaint filed with a prosecutor in Angeles City, 50 miles north of Manila, named the three confessed conspirators who will testify for the state as Crisanto Lalu, Santiago Manguera and Efren Guitoban, who was implicated in three other slayings. Also in police custody is Romeo Valencia.

All 19 suspects were charged with multiple murder, which carries a maximum life sentence, and attempted murder in the case of U.S. Capt. Raymund Pulsifer, who was shot at but not injured.

Alamares said the captured suspects told police the killings were carried out in retaliation for U.S. assistance to government soldiers wounded in a September battle with the rebels.

The Americans killed in the shootings were Sgt. Randy Davis of Portland, Ore., Airman 1st Class Steven Faust of Pasadena, Tex., and retired Sgt. Herculana Maganta, a Philippine resident.