Elderly priest in Ormoc found dead in convent room

TACLOBAN CITY- An elderly priest was found dead inside the bathroom of his room in a convent in Ormoc City, Leyte on Friday afternoon.

The police, however, were still investigating to determine the cause of the death of Fr. Rafael Pepito, 63.

“At this point, we cannot say what could be the immediate cause of the death of Fr. Pepito. We are ruling out any possible foul play considering that the place of incident was a church,” said Police Major Reynaldo Honrado, chief of Ormoc City Police Station I, in a phone interview on Saturday.

He said they had yet to receive the post-mortem report either from the City Health Office or the scene of the crime operatives for them to know the cause of death of Pepito, a long-time priest of Saints Peter and Paul Church.

Pepito was known to be a good-natured and accommodating priest and is a native of Ormoc City.

Initial investigation showed that Pepito was scheduled to officiate a Mass at noon on Friday but didn’t show up.

Sister Jane Arogante decided to go to the priest’s room on the second floor of the convent of the Saints Peter and Paul Church.

The nun got the room’s duplicate key to open it. To her shock, she found the priest sprawled in the bathroom.

The priest was said to have finished his bath to prepare for his Mass at noon that day.

/MUF