Romulo Kintanar was an intelligence agent of the Manila government’s military and police since 1992. As such he was a combatant in the ongoing civil war between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the revolutionary movement of the Filipino people, represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP.
No less than GRP President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo confirmed that Kintanar was an intelligence agent of the Manila government. The Philippine Star on 27 January 2003 reported in its banner story, NPA Admits Kintanar Slay: “President Arroyo confirmed that Kintanar was working as a government intelligence agent at the time of his assassination.”
Earlier, on 23 January 2003, an official in Arroyo’s Malacanang Palace said Kintanar was “a consultant of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), but was drawing his salary from the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID)” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Breaking News, 24 January 2003, Communist Party Chief Blamed for Slay of Former NPA Head). He was also a security consultant to the National Electrification Administration (NEA) at the time of his death.
Efforts to recruit Kintanar into the military intelligence were successfully carried out in the period of March to August 1992 when PNP intelligence officer Col. Robert Delfin faked the arrest of his asset Ricardo Reyes, a renegade expelled from the CPP more than a decade ago, and put him in the same detention cell as Kintanar in order to turn him against the revolutionary movement.
After his release from prison through an amnesty program of the Manila government in September 1992, Kintanar made known his separation from the CPP. He started to work for the intelligence services of the GRP and also became thoroughly involved in the criminal world of corrupt military and police officers engaging in protection rackets, armed robbery, kidnapping and murder for hire, even putting up his own private security agency (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 24 January 2003, Ibid) as cover for his nefarious activities.
Kintanar, together with his uncle, Gen. Galileo Kintanar, former head of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) during the Marcos regime, was linked to the murder of movie star Nida Blanca and was known to facilitate transactions with the military and police for a fee. Two days before his death Kintanar was one of the special guests of PNP chief General Hermogenes Ebdane at the 12th founding anniversary of the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO), hobnobbing with top police officers (The Philippine Star, 24 January 2003, Ex-NPA Chieftain Slain). Also another special guest was Arturo Tabara, who is the chieftain of the RPA gang, a security force of big landlord and Marcos crony Eduardo Cojuangco in Negros Occidental.
In 2000, after becoming security consultant to Gen. Alexander Aguirre, former President Joseph Estrada‘s national security adviser, Kintanar was designated project officer in an assasination plot against Prof. Jose Maria Sison in the Netherlands. He followed the direction of Gen. Panfilo Lacson, head of the PNP at the time. (Manila Times, 24 January 2003, Ex-NPA Chief Assassinated Inside QC Restaurant) He also took part in surveillance and other “counter-insurgency” operations by the military and police against the CPP and NPA.
At the time of his death, Kintanar was with two bodyguards and was personally armed with three guns: a .45 caliber pistol, an HK machine pistol and a Glock 9mm pistol (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6 February 2003, Kintanar Lost Rolex, Cash, 3 Guns, Golf Set). As an intelligence agent of the GRP, he was always ready for combat against the revolutionary movement.
Kintanar was definitely a combatant. He was fully armed and dangerous at the time of his death. These facts are well known in the Philippines. But some groups and individuals abroad would rather peddle lies than tell the truth about events in the Philippines in their vicious scheme to malign the Philippine revolutionary movement.