Fact-finding team formed to probe priest’s slay

Thursday, October 20, 2011
ARAKAN, Cotabato — Nuns, priests and members of civil society from different areas in Mindanao organized themselves into a fact-finding team to probe the killing of Italian missionary Fausto Tentorio.
Tentorio was killed in broad daylight Monday inside a church’s compound while he was about to board his grey Suzuki four-wheel vehicle to attend a regular clergy meeting in Kidapawan City, some 54 kilometers away from this town.
Ariel Casilao, one of the conveners of the Exodus for Justice and Peace, said they want to dig deeper and determine the perpetrators and the motive behind the killing.
The groups believe the killing was related to the priest’s strong stance against human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by the military assigned in the area.
The town of Arakan is now under the operational control of the 10th Special Forces of the Philippine Airborne.
Arakan municipal Councilor Richard Gayatin said the Special Forces were assigned in the area just last September, replacing the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion.
He said Tentorio was very vocal against the use of government facilities, including day care and health centers and barangay halls, as temporary outposts of the military.
The government forces, however, as well as the communist rebels, denied involvement in the killing of Tentorio.
Colonel Leopoldo Galon, spokesperson for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said it is not fair to immediately blame the soldiers assigned in the area for the killing.
The National Democratic Front Southern Mindanao also said in a statement Wednesday that it saw the killing of Tentorio as an occasion to show their collective disgust and legitimate action against the state.
But Fr. Peter Geremiah, also Italian and a member of the congregation, told the fact-finding group that Tentorio was even included in the Order of Battle list, which allegedly came from the military.
Geremiah was also in the list, he said.
“Fr. Tentorio was not the type of person who would love to be interviewed by media. But his stance on many issues, especially if these concern the poor farmers and the indigenous peoples, you would expect him to be defending or standing for them. He was willing to take the risk to protect them,” said Geremiah.
Both Geremiah and Tentorio arrived in North Cotabato in early 80s and served the parishes in towns of Arakan and Tulunan in North Cotabato and Columbio in Sultan Kudarat province.
Tentorio was the coordinator of the Tribal Filipino Program of the Diocese of Kidapawan.
Tentorio, according to the data from the Exodus of Justice and Peace, became the 54th victim of extra-judicial killing in the country.
“During the Aquino administration, Fr. Tentorio was the first prominent church personality who became a victim of the extra-judicial killing,” said Casilao.
A police investigator, who requested anonymity because higher officials issued a “marching order” that only one person could give statement to media, said they are keeping two witnesses whose identities are also withheld.
The police, however, refused to give clues as to how their investigations are going on.
Despite what happened with many of their colleagues, Geremiah and another Italian priest, Giovanni Vettoretto, said they would continue their mission in North Cotabato.
Vettoretto is Tentorio’s assistant at the Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Arakan.
When the killing took place, Vettoretto was inside the chapel.
When asked if he would continue serving his people in Arakan town, Vettoretto quipped, “I don’t want to make a drastic decision. But I don’t think that sending us back home is the thinking of the PIME. I am not afraid to stay here. We would continue serving the people here.”
Tentorio, based on the findings of the Scene of the Crime Operatives in North Cotabato, sustained 10 (not eight as earlier reported) gunshot wounds in different parts of his body from a 9mm pistol.
Cotabato Governor Emmylou Talinio Mendoza confirmed that Tentorio will be buried in Mindanao.
Mendoza said the Italian priest has expressed his wishes to be buried in the province out of his love and deep concern for the people there.
The Diocese of Kidapawan also announced Wednesday that Tentorio would be buried at the cemetery inside Bishop’s Palace at Barangay Balindog here on October 25, after the funeral mass at the Our Lady of Mediatrix of All Grace Cathedral. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on October 20, 2011.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2011/10/20/fact-finding-team-formed-probe-priest-s-slay-186030

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