PNP has 2 witnesses in Italian priest's slay

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines – The police now have two potential witnesses to the brutal killing of Italian priest Fausto Tentorio in Arakan, North Cotabato last Oct. 17, but are still withholding their identities and whereabouts for security reasons, local officials said.

The mayor of Arakan, Gerardo Tuble, and the town’s police chief, Senior Inspector Benjamin Rioflorido, both declined to speak about the two witnesses, citing a request from the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to only allow one officer, Chief Superintendent Lester Camba, to issue statements pertaining to the Tentorio murder.

Camba is the deputy director for administration of the Region 12 police.

“We agreed to such arrangement because it will ensure proximity and veracity of information pertaining to the case that the public ought to know. We want to avoid speculations by the public,” Tuble told reporters.

A lone gunman, armed with a 9-mm pistol, casually approached Tentorio when he was about to board his 4x4 vehicle parked near their convent and opened fire.

As the victim fell, the suspect fired more shots to finish him off, then escaped on a motorcycle parked nearby.

Nuns, priests and members of various civil society organizations from across Mindanao have joined ranks to help in the investigation of Tentorio’s murder.

Tentorio belongs to the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Mission (PIME) congregation.

Ariel Casilao, one of the conveners of the Exodus for Justice and Peace comprised of various groups that volunteered to help the police, said they are certain the killing of Tentorio could be related to his active involvement in activities meant to protect the rights of indigenous people in Arakan and surrounding towns.

Tentorio was also critical of the military’s use of daycare centers, barangay halls, and clinics as outposts and temporary shelters when they operate against local forces of the New People’s Army.

Local officials in Arakan, a hinterland town at the border of North Cotabato and Bukidnon, said there are groups that must have been irked by Tentorio’s tough campaign against intrusion of “outsiders” into ancestral lands of highland tribes, and the exploitation of natural resources in tribal enclaves that could only lead to the dislocation of native inhabitants.

Strong voice

Senators Loren Legarda and Teofisto Guingona III also expressed sadness over the loss of a strong voice of the indigenous people.

Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on cultural communities, lamented that the Mindanao region lost a staunch advocate against the expansion of mining activities in ancestral lands.

Guingona, for his part, said the death of Tentorio has several implications on the overall peace and order situation, not only in northern Mindanao but in other mining areas as well.

He said that the anti-mining campaign could be affected if the killing of Tentorio turns out to be related to his advocacy against mining.

Guingona said that the heightened protest against mining could cause civil unrest and protest not only in the mining affected provinces but even in far-flung areas.

He said that the authorities should bring the perpetrators to justice right away in order to quell the unrest among civil society groups and indigenous people.

No backing out

Meanwhile, missionary-compatriots of Tentorio are not backing out from their religious missions in Arakan and surrounding towns.

Italian priests Peter Geremiah and Giovanni Vettoretto, who also belong to the PIME, both said they will continue with their humanitarian and peace-building projects in North Cotabato despite the killing of Tentorio.

Vettoretto is Tentorio’s assistant at the Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Arakan. He was, in fact, inside their convent when Tentorio was gunned down.

“In fact, I don’t feel threatened here (in Arakan). I am not afraid to stay here. We will continue serving the people here. Maybe in some areas, there could be danger. We just have to be careful,” Vettoretto said.

Geremiah, the most senior among all PIME priests in the province, said he too will continue working in North Cotabato.– With Marvin Sy