Fr. Pops’ murder year after: Key players roam free

DAVAO CITY—The perpetrators of the murder of Italian priest Fr. Fausto Tentorio remain scot-free a year after his killing despite the filing of charges against them, an Italian missionary said.

Fr. Peter Geremia, chair of the Justice for Pops Movement (JPM), said the list of those charged in the Tentorio murder case have been revised and private prosecutors included lumad militiamen led by a certain Jan Corbala, also known as Commander Iring.

Geremia, also a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Mission, said based on accounts of new witnesses, Corbala led the group that executed Tentorio.

The Eastern Mindanao Command has repeatedly denied involvement in the Tentorio murder.

Geremia, who replaced Tentorio as Arakan parish priest, said the case “seems to be hardly moving at all.”

Police, he said, “stopped the investigation.”

He said JPM is urging President Aquino to disarm the militia that is behind the killing and expand the investigation.

Tentorio was killed as he prepared to leave the Arakan church compound on Oct. 17 last year.

During his over 30 years of missionary work in the country, Tentorio had fought for the rights of indigenous peoples against abuses. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao