n BUSINESS / B1 n SPORTS / A23 n NEWS / A16 n ACROSS / A13

Tokyo lifts freeze Mavs pull ahead Pilita, Francis M GMA puts Boracay
on P4B in grants, of Suns with join Ryan as under administrative

loans to Manila
email: feedback@inquirer.com.ph
Soldier-athletes tapped
to guard Magdalo men
By Nikko Dizon
THE MAGDALO SOLDIERS
will have to karate-chop
their way, shoot hoops, or
bend it like Beckham to es-
cape their security escorts
who happen to be strap-
ping soldier-athletes.
SOLDIER/ A4
INQUIRER
Game 3 victory judges of RP ‘Idol’ control of PTA
RP doctors to fly 12 tons
P H I L I P P I N E D A I L Y of supplies to Indonesia
THE PHILIPPINES WILL SEND A 20-MEMBER
medical contingent with 12 tons of supplies and
medicine to Indonesia where a deadly earthquake
on Saturday left more than 5,100 dead and
200,000 others homeless.
Emergency aid has begun pouring into areas
devastated by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake in
B A L A N C E D N E W S , F E A R L E S S V I E W S Indonesia, but officials said supplies were not be-
ing delivered fast enough to victims who begged
Tuesday, May 30, 2006 H 4 sections / Vol. 21 / No. 171 P18 website: www.inq7.net RP DOCTORS/ A6

60 Metro schools, hospitals, buildings vulnerable to big quake

By Leila B. Salaverria
THE PHILIPPINE ORTHOPEDIC
Center, PhilSports Arena (former-
ly Ultra) and the Batasan Hills El-
ementary School are among the
60 buildings in danger of sustain-
ing “life-threatening” damage
should a major earthquake hit
Works and Highways.
The task force also identified
the Bicutan Interchange in
Parañaque City as among the six
bridges in Metro Manila that
were recommended for strength-
ening to increase their chances of
withstanding an earthquake.
It released the list of the build-
quake in neighboring Indonesia
claimed about 5,100 lives.
To minimize the loss of lives
and property in the country, Pres-
ident Macapagal-Arroyo yester-
day ordered civil defense officials
to conduct earthquake-prepared-
ness drills in schools, business
districts and public places.
any contingencies whether
brought forth by earthquakes,
landslides, floods and other natu-
ral calamities,” the President
said.
The Philippines, just like In-
donesia, sits on what is common-
ly referred to as the Pacific “Ring
of Fire,” a zone of frequent earth-
About five quakes hit the
Philippines every day, but few, if
any, are felt.
A 4.0-magnitude undersea
earthquake hit the Visayas early
yesterday, a day after two mild
quakes shook parts of the Philip-
pines. Authorities said no dam-
age was expected and the tem-
canology and Seismology, or
Phivolcs, said the predawn
quake’s epicenter was 690 km
southeast of Manila, off Bohol is-
land.
On Sunday afternoon, a 5.3-
magnitude quake struck off the
country’s northernmost Babuyan
Island group. Hours later, a 3.3-

Ex-Red peace
Metro Manila, according to the ings, mostly public elementary “Let us not be alarmed, but by quakes and volcanic eruptions blors were not related to Indone- magnitude quake rattled Ca-
Task Force on Building Inspection and high schools, to the media all means let every vulnerable that encircles the Pacific Ocean sia’s killer quake. gayan de Oro City and nearby ar-
of the Department of Public two days after a 6.3-magnitude community be prepared to meet basin. The Philippine Institute of Vol- 60 METRO/ A6

adviser killed Llamas 8th

leftist leader

NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/PDI SOUTHERN LUZON BUREAU

shot dead
this month
By Job B. Belen
PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
DEAD ON ARRIVAL: The body of Sotero “Ka Teroy” Llamas at the
TABACO CITY—A Dr. Amando Cope Memorial Hospital in Tabaco City in Albay.
rebel who became a
peace adviser met a vio-
lent end yesterday. 2 Abu tipsters share
P26-million US prize
Sotero Llamas, a for-
mer New People’s Army
leader in Bicol and a
consultant to commu- TWO FILIPINO INFORMANTS bombing of a ferry in Manila on
nist rebels negotiating a will share a $500,000-reward Feb. 27, 2004 that killed 116 peo-
(about P26 million) from the US ple and the simultaneous bomb-
LEFTIST leaders Nathanael Santiago (left) and party-list Representatives Joel Virador, Liza Maza, peace settlement with government for a tip that led to ings in Makati, General Santos
Teodoro Casiño (partly hidden) and Rafael Mariano attend a Makati court hearing on the rebellion case
against them with their lawyer Romulo Capulong. (Story on Page A2.) REM ZAMORA the government, was the arrest of a terror suspect in and Davao cities on Feb. 14,

No more safe haven, says Left

By Michael Lim Ubac
“IS THE GOVERNMENT OUT TO
kill us?”
This was the question posed by
Rep. Satur Ocampo, leader of the
militant Bayan Muna party-list
group, when he heard the news
that ex-communist rebel leader
Sotero Llamas had been gunned
down in Bicol.
Colleagues of Llamas said his
murder showed there was no safe
haven even for those who had
abandoned the armed struggle.
“The government and the mili-
tary are really itching to jail and
silence us, including even the po-
litically inactive Llamas … They
had the strongest motive to si-
lence and kill Llamas,” Bayan Mu-
na secretary general Nathanael
Santiago said.
Santiago said Llamas had been
inactive in Bayan Muna and the
legal Left since 2003. He blamed
the killing on the Arroyo adminis-
tration.
Ocampo, Santiago and Llamas
were among some 50 people the
Department of Justice had
charged with rebellion in connec-
tion with an alleged Left-Right
conspiracy to grab power in
February.
NO MORE/ A9
shot dead Monday
morning while riding in
a van here.
His driver was wounded. The
assassins escaped.
As in the previous murders of
militants, Llamas, known as “Ka
Teroy,” was shot by two men on a
motorcycle.
Colleagues said Llamas’s killing
reflected how dangerous the times
had become even for those who
had tried to leave the revolutionary
path. (See related story at left.)
EX-RED/ A8
Mindanao last year, the US Em-
bassy said yesterday.
Hilarion del Rosario Santos III,
the alleged head of the Rajah So-
laiman Movement, a group of
Christian converts to Islam that
has been closely associated with
al-Qaida-linked militants, was ar-
rested in Zamboanga City in Oc-
tober last year together with six
other suspects.
His group is believed to have
links to the Indonesian-based Je-
maah Islamiyah and the bandit
group Abu Sayyaf, which oper-
ates in Mindanao.
The Abu Sayyaf was behind the
2005, that left seven dead and
150 wounded.
Jemaah Islamiyah, a group
seeking to create an Islamic
state in Southeast Asia, was be-
hind the explosion on Aug. 1,
2000, at the Jakarta residence
of the Philippine ambassador to
Indonesia and the Rizal Day
bombings in Metro Manila, also
in 2000.
Santos also was connected to
plots to attack the US Embassy in
Manila and American citizens,
the embassy said.
It said the money, to be pre-
2 ABU/ A4

Army kickboxers go
SALVAGE
MISSION
Laid-off
after village thugs
workers of By Christian V. Esguerra placing karate and judo, the erst-
Atlas while close-combat method of
Consolidated NOT LONG AGO, IN A REMOTE choice, in the Philippine military’s
barrio in Mindanao, four of the elite forces.
Mining and
military’s toughest “jungle fight- Muay thai is referred to as “the
Development
ers” were handpicked for a spe- science of eight limbs,” as the
Corp. retrieve
cial mission—to “neutralize” a hands, feet, elbows and knees are
materials from all used extensively to inflict maxi-
small band of rogue men terroriz-
inside the ing the community. mum damage to an opponent. A
crumbling In about a week, all seven targets master practitioner of muay thai has
structures at mysteriously fell, one after the other. the ability to execute strikes using
the company’s Each had a severe neck, rib or spinal eight “points of contact,” as opposed
Carmen copper injury. All survived but none of them to “two points” (fists) in boxing and
mining site on dared pick on the local folk again. “four points” (fists, feet) used in the
the outskirts of The mission never hit the head- other forms of martial arts.
Toledo City in lines—which was what the soldiers From 2000 to 2004, selected
Cebu. They sell wanted. But it was a resounding troops from the Army’s 2nd In-
the scrap to success for the team that had quiet- fantry Division based in Tanay,
earn a living and ly trained in an increasingly popu- Rizal, went through separate
feed their lar, albeit brutal, sport—muay thai. two-month courses under muay
families. This traditional fighting art form thai expert Zhie Vallega.
AFP from Thailand, also known as Thai The military leadership had got-
kickboxing, has been steadily re- ARMY/ A4