PRAYER FOR JUSTICE Church people, including controversial Australian nun Patricia Fox (center), gather at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila, to demand justice for Fr. Richmond Nilo and other victims of killings in the country.—GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
The Nueva Ecija prosecutor’s office has dropped the murder charge it filed against Adel Roll Milan, 26, who was accused of killing Fr. Richmond Nilo on June 10 in Zaragoza town.
On Friday, Milan said he was freed after authorities learned that police would charge a new suspect, identified only as “Omar or Arman,” allegedly a hired gun who was arrested by the police in Arayat town, Pampanga province.
The Central Luzon police declined to comment on the new arrest.
“I resemble the [new] suspect,” said Milan, after he saw the new suspect at the Nueva Ecija Justice Hall in Cabanatuan City shortly after he was released.
Shot before Mass
Nilo, parish priest of St. Vincent Ferrer in Zaragoza, was shot dead as he prepared for Mass at the Nuestra Señora de la Nieve chapel.
He was killed in front of parishioners.
On the eve of Nilo’s burial on June 15, police arrested Milan in San Isidro town after a witness identified him from the police rogue’s gallery.
But Milan’s relatives and neighbors in the village of Malapit in San Isidro said police got the wrong man.
They said Milan had been drinking with them from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on June 10.
A barangay council member also vouched for Milan’s innocence.
Milan had been detained at the Nueva Ecija police station here for 16 days.
“I was innocent and I always prayed that they would find the culprit,” he said.
No injustice
Police had described Milan as a drug suspect but he said he quit using drugs in 2015 and had been living with his grandmother.
He said police kept asking him questions regarding the murder until he was formally charged by the prosecutor.
“I kept saying I did not know anything [about the murder],” he said, adding that he was not harmed during interrogations.
The information on the new suspect prompted the Diocese of Cabanatuan to ask for a briefing from the police.
Fr. Noel Jetajobe, the diocese’s vicar general, said the Church received updates about the case through text messages and telephone calls but the investigation had yet to uncover the people who ordered Nilo’s death.
Jetajobe said no member of Milan’s family had talked to the diocese about the case.
“But we wouldn’t want to have double injustices in this case. We don’t want to prosecute innocents,” he said.