DOJ to reopen probe on Italian priest’s murder six years ago

Italian priest Fausto “Pops” Tentorio. PHOTO FROM BARUG KATUNGOD

Six years after Fr. Fausto “Pops” Tentorio was killed, the Department of Justice (DOJ) would soon reopen its investigation into the murder case after it issued a new report on the Italian priest’s death.

Fr. Tentorio, a member of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME), was gunned down inside the Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Arakan, North Cotabato on October 17, 2011.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong, who drafted the DOJ report, lamented why the case failed to progress for years despite already available findings and pieces of evidence on Tentorio’s death.

Ong said a resolution was already filed by provincial prosecutors with the Administrative Order (AO) 35 Special Oversight Team, but the team found the findings insufficient and recommended “further investigation.”

READ: Gov’t eyeing 3 angles in slay of Italian priest

AO 35, signed by former President Benigno Aquino III, created the “Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and other Grave Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.”

“I can’t fathom why they can’t come up with a similar resolution. We were able to check how Tentorio was killed,” Ong told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday.

Ong said the priest was fatally shot ten times by a hitmen  of a paramilitary group called “Bagani.” Witnesses bared that Tentorio’s killing was planned seven days before execution, he said.

“May mga nag-utos sa kanila (hitman). We may not be able to ID them all of them. May nakuha kami sino ang possible suspects,” Ong said.

“When I met 30 witnesses in July sa Arakan, very spontaneous pa rin ang kwento nila. They aren’t worried. They are willing to testify,” he said.

Despite Tentorio’s close ties with the Lumad tribe, the DOJ report ruled out any political angle in the Italian priest’s death, Ong said.

“You have no reason to kill a person who is not a combatant. It is plain murder,” Ong said.

“No politics here. This has nothing to do with the NPA (New People’s Army). This is simple murder,” he said.

Ong said the new report was drafted after DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II issued a department order last March for a reinvestigation and case build-up on Tentorio’s death.

“Justice may be slow, but one thing we promise is that we will give justice to Father Pops. How long will it take? We can’t control it,” he said. /jpv