2 suspects in Surigao slay fall

CAMP RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ, Butuan City — Two of four suspects in the Oct. 8 killing of a former Army draftee, who had become a priest of a Surigao del Sur religious sect, were arrested the other day.

The suspects, Norberto Liones Jr., 32, and his brother, Gerry, 34, tagged in the killing of Dionisio Gingging, were nabbed in Barangay Maticdom in Tandag, Surigao del Sur, said Superintendent Alex Edera Ga, provincial police director.

Ga and Chief Superintendent Antonio Dator Nañas presented the Liones brothers to the media at the regional police headquarters here yesterday.

Murder charges have been filed against the Lioneses with the provincial prosecutor’s office.

Gingging, a priest of the Church of the Body of Christ, was stabbed and hacked to death by ski mask-wearing men in his piggery farm in Barangay Bajao, Tago town. His mother, 12-year-old daughter and a female companion were unharmed by the attackers.

Four witnesses told the police that the Liones brothers had threatened to kill Gingging a few weeks before the attack.

The witnesses added that Gingging’s attackers rushed to his house after the killing and carted away religious images and bottles of medicinal oil.

Police said the Liones brothers apparently got angry at Gingging, who was also a faith healer, for refusing to attend to their father whom they believed was a victim of kulam (witchcraft). The elder Liones later died.

The two brothers, however, denied any hand in the killing, claiming that they did not know Gingging personally.

Gingging was earlier reported to be an Aglipayan priest, but the Iglesia Filipina Independiente denied this. His religious sect was formed by a former IFI priest.

Gingging also belonged to the Philippine Benevolent Missionary Association, which regards Ruben Ecleo as its supreme master.