Filipino Communists Kill Local Mayor

Suspected Communist rebels have shot and killed a local mayor and one of his bodyguards during a daylight raid on his town hall.
Santa Rosa Mayor Leon Arcillas, an ally of President Gloria Arroyo, was killed shortly after conducting a wedding. Police in Santa Rosa, an industrial town just outside the capital, Manila, said Mr Arcillas had previously received death threats from rebels. The Maoist New People's Army tried to kill Mr Arcillas two years ago. Mr Arcillas and the bodyguard were ambushed and shot as they walked down a corridor in the Santa Rosa municipal building. The New People's Army, which has assassinated public figures before, is an armed wing of the Philippines Communist Party. The group has fought for a Maoist state in the Philippines for three decades, and is estimated to have as many as 8,000 fighters. The New People's Army is branded a terror group by the U.S.