Bayan Muna leader gunned down in Albay

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:22pm (Mla time) 12/31/2006

A PROVINCIAL leader of the Bayan-Muna party list group was gunned down at his house in Albay province in the central Philippines early Sunday evening, New Year's Eve, militant leaders said.

Rodolfo "Pong" Alvarado, who is in his 40s, was shot eight times in the attack at his home in San Lorenzo village, Ligao town at around 5:45 p.m., Bayan Muna secretary general Robert de Castro said in a phone interview.

The secretary general of the affiliate group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Renato Reyes Jr, also confirmed that Alvarado had been killed.

Police could not immediately confirm the incident.

Alvarado is the 122nd Bayan Muna member to be killed and the 814th victim of extra-judicial killings since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed office in 2001, De Castro said.

He was the sixth nominee of the Bayan Muna party-list in the 2004 elections, where the group won three seats.

The spate of extra-judicial killings in the country, which has targeted left-wing activists and journalists, has alarmed the international community.

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