NDFP consultant-columnist shot dead in Nueva Vizcaya
Credit to Author: cbibe| Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2019 00:37:48 +0000
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randy Felix P. Malayao was shot dead inside a bus in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya, at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Malayao’s ride was at a bus stop when the gunman reportedly climbed aboard, approached the sleeping victim and shot him, witnesses said. He died on the spot.
Before President Rodrigo Duterte canceled peace talks with the NDFP, Malayao attended formal peace negotiations in Europe as a consultant from Cagayan Valley. He also acted as one of the spokespersons of the NDFP Negotiating Panel in Europe.
Abroad and in the Philippines, Malayao represented the NDFP in peace forums, along with Government of the Republic of the Philippines negotiators Secretary Silvestre Bello III, lawyer Angela Librado Trinidad and others.
Unlike most other NDFP peace consultants, Malayao had no criminal charges before government courts, which allowed him to freely move around the country to attend peace-related activities.
Malayao was a former political prisoner who was abducted and tortured under the Gloria Arroyo regime. He spent more than four years in jails in Cagayan and Isabela provinces and was freed after he had been acquitted of charges against him.
Bello served as his one-time legal counsel.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in Fisheries degree from the University of the Philippines Visayas-Miag-ao in the 1990s. He was also a columnist of the Baguio City-based newspaper Northern Dispatch. /cbb