ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 15, 2012) – An unidentified gunman shot dead a government intelligence agent on Friday in the southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga, police said.
Police said Thany Balagot, 32, was killed in the village of Guiwan at around 4 a.m. Balagot was apparently waiting for somebody at a dark alley when he was attacked.
The victim, police said, was working with the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency or NICA, but it was not immediately known whether Balagot was on a mission when he was murdered.
“Balagot was a civilian asset who’s working as an asset for the NICA. There is an investigation to determine the motive of the killing,” police investigator Butch Canonez told the Mindanao Examiner.
Asset is a police and military slang which refers to an intelligence informer.
The man’s family did not give any statement to the police, but his girlfriend claimed that Balagot would tell her that he was a lieutenant serving in the army.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the murder, but gun attacks are not uncommon in Zamboanga City where hired killers are actively operating.
NICA, which is headed by former army general Trifonio Salazar, is the Philippine counterpart of the US Central Intelligence Agency which is primary involved in covert or clandestine operations. It works closely with foreign intelligence groups to counter the threat of terrorism and reports directly to President Benigno Aquino. (Mindanao Examiner)
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