CEBU CITY—The police has arrested the remaining suspect in the killing of Fr. Jovencio Rabusa during an operation conducted Thursday morning in Camotes Island, Cebu.

Rabusa, a Catholic priest belonging to the team ministry of the parish in Naga City, Cebu was robbed and shot Monday night along the South Coastal Road in Barangay Cansojong, Talisay City, 12 km south of Cebu City. He died several minutes later at the Talisay District Hospital were he was rushed for treatment.

Superintendent Eduardo Saavedra, San Francisco town police chief, said a joint police team arrested Jonas Andrade Turawan, 21, a native of sitio Mangga, Western Poblacion, San Francisco, Camotes Island, at past 7 a.m. outside the house of his relative in sitio Pajo, Barangay Tigues at the nearby Poro town.

Turawan was the suspect identified as "Tingloy" who allegedly took the bag and the cell phone of Rabusa. He later threw away the bag thinking it only contained shorts, towels and books.

Saavedra said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG 7) and the Talisay City Police had called his office and asked him to monitor the whereabouts of Turawan since he was a native of San Francisco town.

Saavedra said they received a tip that Turawan was hiding in the house of a relative in the nearby Poro town.

A joint team of policemen from San Francisco town, Talisay City and the CIDG proceeded to the area and arrested the suspect who was sitting outside the house of his relative.

Saavedra said Turawan did not resist arrest.

On Wednesday, the Talisay City police placed under their custody the three other suspects. They first arrested the 18-year-old Gerald Tradio who admitted selling the phone of the priest for P1,200.

Following Tradio’s arrest, police said a 15-year-old boy (who was not with Rabusa, as earlier reported, when the incident happened) surrendered and admitted he was with the group who robbed the priest.

Supt. Henry Biñas, chief of the Talisay City Police Station, said on Tuesday that a young man, another male teenager, who was with the priest at the time of the assault, ran away and asked for assistance in a nearby gasoline station. Biñas said this teenager told police that three men accosted the priest and ordered him to turn over his valuables.

The third suspect, gunman Ruselo Rabanes, 28, of Cansojong, Talisay, was arrested in the house of a friend in Tangke, Talisay.

Rabanes admitted that he shot the priest when the latter resisted instead of turning over his cell phone and tried to run away.

Biñas said his office would be filing criminal charges against the four suspects.

He said he was inclined to include Tradio in the robbery with homicide charges, because their witness revealed that he was seen in the vicinity of the area where the priest was killed.

He added that they would also include the 15-year-old boy in the charges so the court could order a rehabilitation program for him.

The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, authored by Senator Francis Pangilinan, exempts youth offenders aged 15 years and below from criminal liability.

The priest’s companion is now in the custody of a barangay official and will serve as witness to the killing, Biñas said.