| Children pay their last respects to slain Italian priest Fr. Fausto Tentorio, who was shot dead in Arakan, North Cotabato province on Monday. AFP PHOTO |
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino 3rd on Tuesday ordered security forces to get those responsible for the murder of Fr. Fausto Tentorio.
“Regardless of who did the crime, they will have to pay. That has been the direction of this administration from the start. You do the crime, you will be in jail,” President Aquino told journalists during a chance interview in Manila.
Mr. Aquino was briefed by the police on the killing of the Italian priest, who was attacked at 8:25 a.m. on Monday outside a Catholic convent in Arakan town, North Cotabato province.
Tentorio, a missionary from the Rome-based Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was shot several times by the gunman who escaped on a motorbike.
Officials of the Catholic Church also want justice for the priest.
Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Cotabato strongly condemned the killing.
“The only message I have is that of sadness. I don’t know much [about] the details,” said Fr. Giovanni Re, the Zamboanga City-based PIME regional superior, adding that Tentorio was the Church’s second martyr in Kidapawan City.
“This is a very sad incident, very painful for us because all the while we thought Kidapawan [was] already a peaceful place,” Bishop Romulo dela Cruz of Kidapawan said.
Tentorio is the second Italian missionary to be shot dead in North Cotabato. In 1985, Fr. Tullio Favali, also a PIME missionary and a parish priest of Tulunan town, also in the Kidapawan diocese, was killed on April 11, 1985 by a paramilitary group led by Norberto Manero Jr.
Dela Cruz said that he and the clergy, along with PIME missionaries, thought that Favali’s death would be the last incident involving foreign missionaries in Kidapawan.
“I can’t understand why this had to happen. Fr. Fausto was a very peaceful man,” he added.
The missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) also denounced the murder.
Fr. Lauro de Guia, OMI provincial director, said that Tentorio had selflessly worked to help the indigenous people and the poor farmers of Arakan Valley.
“We are saddened by the fact that there are sectors in our society who are against our work to help bring about peace in Mindanao,” de Guia said.
“We appeal to the peace-loving people to help in giving light to the death of Fr. Fausto and bring the perpetrators before the bar of justice,” he added.
Militant groups and human rights activists blamed government militias for the killing of Tentorio, who was a known anti-mining advocate and defender of indigenous tribes in the province.
In Mindanao, the military has also mounted its own investigation of the killing, but there has been no new information on who was behind the slaying.
“We are still gathering intelligence about the murder. We condemn this attack on an innocent priest,” said Col. Noel dela Cruz, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division.
For its part, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has formed “Task Group Fausto” to lead the investigation of the killing. Chief Supt. Lester Camba, Deputy Regional Director for Administration Police Regional Office 12, will lead the panel.
WITH REPORTS FROM JAIME PILAPIL AND RAFFY AYENG
