Jealous Wife May Have Prompted Killing of U.S. Airman in Philippines

Police Tuesday ruled out involvement of the Communist insurgency in the slaying of a U.S. serviceman near Clark Air Base and said the gunmen may have been acting on behalf of his jealous wife.

“It’s not the New People’s Army,” police Lt. Frederico Nuguit said in reference to the Communist rebel group, which is trying to topple the government. It claimed responsibility for killing three Americans last year outside the base 50 miles north of Manila.

“It’s a love angle any way you look at it,” Nuguit said.

Gunmen in a passing car fired three shots into the back of Tech. Sgt. Richard Blackmer, 31, a native of Brook Park, Ohio, as he walked two German shepherds Monday night in a neighborhood near the base. The dogs were also killed.

“It appears to be more criminal than political,” said a U.S. Air Force spokesman, Master Sgt. Sam Hill. “The only thing we can come up with is that he (Blackmer) had some very severe family problems.”

Investigators said that Blackmer, who has been in the Philippines since 1984, left his Philippine-born wife two years ago and recently took up residence with another Filipino woman.

District police commander Lt. Col. Amado Espino Jr. said he had sent agents into the neighboring province of Tarlac in search of Blackmer’s estranged wife, Maria del Rosario. The official Philippine News Agency said the police were also probing reports that Blackmer carried a large life insurance policy.