Ex-priest shot dead in Cebu’s Camotes Island

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CEBU CITY – A former priest who allegedly became a high-ranking official of the New People’s Army (NPA) was shot dead by still unidentified gunmen in Barangay Upper Poblacion, Pilar town, Camotes Island, Cebu.

Rustico Luna Tan, 80, was resting on his hammock on Friday night, May 28, 2021, when the perpetrators shot him in the face and body.

Staff Sergeant Florante Gorrea, an investigator of the Camotes police, said they are conducting an investigation to identify the perpetrators and the motive behind the killing.

“(We are looking into all the angles of the case), but for now it seems that the killing has something to do with a personal grudge,” he said in an interview.

Based on reports, Tan allegedly left the priesthood and became a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).

According to Tug-ani, the official student publication of the University of the Philippines Cebu, Tan was a former political detainee and chief peace negotiator in Cebu for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) until 1987.

In 2017, Tan was arrested in Santander town, Cebu for murder based on arrest warrants issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 47 in Bohol.

The charges were dismissed by the court in October 2019.

Tan was again implicated in another murder case in Bacolod but was freed on rcognizance in March 2020.

Since then, he was busy with organic farming in Camotes Island, Cebu.

Based on Republic Act 10389 or the Recognizance Act of 2012, recognizance is a mode of securing the release of any person in custody or detention for the commission of an offense who is unable to post bail due to abject poverty.

“The court where the case of such person has been filed shall allow the release of the accused on recognizance as provided herein, to the custody of a qualified member of the barangay, city or municipality where the accused resides,” the law stated.

/MUF