Sotero Llamas was in his minivan in Tabaco city, 340 kilometers (210 miles) southeast of Manila, when three gunmen on a motorcycle fired shots, hitting him in the body and head, said the provincial police chief Roque Ramirez. Llamas' driver also was hit but his injuries were not life-threatening, Ramirez said.

``They really wanted him dead,'' said Chief Superintendent Victor Boco, the regional police chief, adding that he formed a police task force to investigate the killing.

He said investigators were considering all angles, including a possibility he was killed by his former comrades in the underground communist movement.

Llamas, in his mid-50s, was a former guerrilla commander in the southeastern Bicol region. He was arrested in 1995 but released a year later, and served as a consultant during peace talks between the communist umbrella group National Democratic Front and the government.

In 2001, he helped form the left-wing political party Bayan Muna, and in 2004, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of Albay province.

He was one of dozens of people, including left-wing lawmakers, communist guerrilla leaders and renegade soldiers who were charged with rebellion after a failed coup on Feb. 24.

Renato Reyes, a leader of the left-wing Bayan alliance, blamed the government for the killing. He alleged that government-sponsored ``death squads'' have been targeting individuals who had been previously involved with communist rebels.

Llamas was killed two days after unidentified gunmen shot dead Noli Capulong, a founding member of Bayan, amid a string of escalating killings of left-wing activists. Colleagues blamed the killings on security forces, but military officials said they could be part of a purge by communist rebels.