Slain Italian priest given hero's burial

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines - – He shunned publicity and worked quietly in his missionary work, but Fr. Fausto Tentorio wound up in the limelight just the same when he was given a hero’s burial yesterday by thousands of supporters.

More than 10,000 parishioners from North Cotabato’s Arakan municipality where he served as parish priest and from surrounding towns turned up yesterday to pay their last respects to the 57-year-old Italian priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Mission (PIME).

The mourners were indignant, calling for a speedy resolution of his murder.

On Oct. 17, a lone gunman shot and killed Tentorio who was about to board his vehicle near a convent in Arakan.

Tentorio was to attend a gathering of priests at the Bishop’s Palace here when the gunman approached and opened fire with his automatic pistol, hitting the priest several times in the body.

Kidapawan Bishop Romulo de la Cruz and PIME priests jointly officiated the requiem mass for Tentorio at the Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace Cathedral here.

Tentorio’s remains were buried at one corner of the Bishop’s residential compound at Barangay Balindog, beside the grave of a compatriot and fellow congregation member, Fr. Tullio Favali, who was brutally murdered in April 1985.

Tentorio was killed exactly 19 years after suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf, led by an alleged hit man named Edwin Angeles and Abduradjak Janjalani, shot dead another Italian priest, Fr. Salvatorie Carzeeda in Zamboanga City. Carzeeda was also a member of PIME.

Tentorio was popular in Arakan and in nearby towns for his projects to protect the rights and cultural identities of indigenous peoples in the area and surrounding towns in North Cotabato.

He was also critical of the military’s wanton intrusion into highland tribal enclaves – supposedly sacred for Lumad communities – when operating against communist rebels.

Tentorio, popularly known as “Fr. Pops” to parishioners in Arakan, was also known for propagating awareness among indigenous groups on the need to stand against the entry of poachers into their ancestral lands for profit-oriented ventures.

Local officials in Arakan said they are convinced Tentorio’s murder could be related to his missionary work and advocacies.

The police announced last week they are now in custody of two potential witnesses, one of them a minor, who could help investigators determine the identity of Tentorio’s killer.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo yesterday said the government is looking into three possible motives behind the killing.

Robredo also urged critics not to zero in on the priest’s anti-mining stand as a possible motive.

Robredo, however, refused to reveal the possible motives behind the killing of Tentorio.

“It might be good for us to consider all the angles and motives because I think they are zeroing in on one motive. There are inconsistencies if you take a closer look at the incidents on the initial motive as claimed,” Robredo told a media forum in Manila.

Police investigators were focusing on the anti-mining crusade of Tentorio as a possible motive in the murder.

“I was there in Arakan last Saturday, they have already a cartographic sketch which will probably assist us in identifying persons responsible (for the killing). We are not certain if that person in that cartographic sketch is the same person responsible for it,” Robredo said.

“There is really difficulty in getting information at this point in time but we do hope that we’ll be able to resolve it the soonest,” he said.

Speaking through a translator, Tentorio’s brother Felici said the slain priest had developed enormous love for the people in Arakan, particularly the tribal communities.

He said his priest-sibling told members of the Tentorio family in a gathering during his last three-month vacation in Italy how happy he was to be back home, but repeatedly emphasized he would be “happier” to see his constituent-parishioners in Arakan when he returns to the Philippines.

“That was Fausto. He loved the people of Arakan so dearly,” Felici told priests and reporters in a brief huddle before the burial rites for his brother.

An emotional Italian Ambassador Luca Fornari said during the burial ceremony for Tentorio they are indignant over the brutality of how he was killed.

“What makes us indignant is the injustice, the impunity of the perpetrator,” Fornari said. “But what fascinates us is how people in his diocese showed sympathy and support for him.” – With Evelyn Macairan, Helen Flores