2nd Aglipayan cleric shot dead

A priest of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), also known as the Aglipayan Church, was shot and stabbed dead inside his home in Surigao del Sur last Sunday, less than a week after an Aglipayan bishop was killed by suspected robbers in a convent in Tarlac City.

Fr. Dionisio Gingging, 53, was killed by three unidentified men, who were wearing ski masks, in his house in Barangay Baja, Tago town before dawn, the IFI said, quoting police reports.

The IFI immediately condemned the killing and called for a deeper investigation by the police. Investigators were reportedly eyeing a personal grudge as possible motive, which Aglipayan officials doubted.

Chief Superintendent Antonio Dator Nañas, Caraga police director, said the victim was stabbed by the suspects with bolos, locally called sundanggay, before he was shot.

Nañas said a personal grudge could be the motive for the killing of the priest, who was a staunch critic of drug trafficking and gambling in the province.

"The way they killed him, it appears the killers hated him so much," Nañas said.

IFI Supreme Bishop Godofredo David said police should not apply their "haphazard and incredible investigation" into the murder, which occurred a week after the killing of Aglipayan Bishop Alberto Ramento.

Ramento, chairman of the Supreme Council of Bishops of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, was found dead in his convent in Tarlac City before dawn last Tuesday.

Police probers said Ramento was killed by four robbers in his room at the San Sebastian parish. But militant groups as well as Ramento’s colleagues, friends and relatives maintained that the killing had something to do with the bishop’s outspoken advocacy for human rights and his criticism of the Arroyo administration.

David said they have conducted their own investigation into the killing of Ramento and found out it was not a case of simple robbery.

"With the help of legal and medical experts, we have seen that based on the quality of stab wounds on his chest, Bishop Ramento was killed while he was sleeping by someone who intended not just to rob the convent but precisely to kill him," the IFI official told

reporters at a news conference in Manila.

He revealed that there were no defensive wounds or signs of struggle in the body of Ramento and that the killing was quick.

Autopsy reports showed that the Aglipayan bishop died due to multiple stab wounds on the chest and back, resulting in the perforation of the heart and lungs and external hemorrhage.

"We denounce the haphazard manner by which the police conducted their investigation to cover up the facts of this political killing. At the onset, our priests were repeatedly denied to witness their investigation at the crime scene, while other local officials were

allowed," David lamented. "Worse, they removed the cordon (police line marker) too soon, allowing practically anyone to enter and contaminate the evidence at the crime scene."

The IFI leader announced that they will hold prayer vigils, symbolic funeral marches and protest rallies nationwide to show indignation for the killing of Ramento.

Church leaders will also stage on Oct. 12 a symbolic funeral march to Mendiola in Manila. Prelates and priests from both Protestant and Catholic churches are expected to join the rally.

‘Robbery was motive’

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) defended police findings that Ramento was killed by robbers last week.

Ruling out any other motive but robbery in Ramento’s death, Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, PNP spokesman, said that if the leadership of the Aglipayan Church had any doubt on the police findings, the church leaders could seek the help of other investigation agencies.

"Officially, we are done with our investigation on the case. We have identified and arrested four of the five suspects and charges were filed against them before the Tarlac Provincial Prosecutors’ Office,"

Pagdilao said.

He said the IFI leadership can turn to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a separate probe, Paglidao said.

Pagdilao said an internationally-accepted investigation process was followed by police probers that conducted a probe into Bishop’s Ramento’s brutal death.

"Mas nakakatulong siguro kung meron silang ibang ebidensya tungkol sa kaso ay i-turn over nila ito sa concerned investigative agencies like the NBI or the PNP," Pagdilao said.

He said that pieces of evidence recovered from the crime scene, along with testimonies of witnesses, clearly showed that it was a simple case of robbery that ended with the killing of Ramento.

The suspects, now under the custody of the police, are Michael Quitalig, Michael Viado, Raymond Perez and Joel Villanueva. Villanueva was apprehended in Tarlac City last Friday while the three others were arrested in Arayat, Pampanga. A fifth suspect, identified as Efren Abaya, alias Efren Suarez, is still at large.

Tarlac police director Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said Viado was the alleged leader of the newly formed "Magic Group."

He said gang members are engaged in petty crimes like shoplifting and cell phone snatching.

Bartolome said probers recovered Ramento’s ring and DVD player from the suspects.

The suspects admitted that they killed Ramento after the priest conducted a public bidding for a project intended for poor children.

Church leaders said Ramento had strongly condemned the extra-judicial killings of leftists activists and journalists in the country and the slain bishop also led local opposition to the proposed amendments the 1987 Constitution.

Tarlac City police chief Rudy Lacadin said, "evidence gathered, including the retrieval of the victim’s rings and DVD player from the suspects, indicates that the case is robbery with homicide and it was incidental that the victim is Bishop Ramento."

The Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF) on Friday expressed outrage over the brutal killing of Ramento.

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, co-chairman of EBF, said the murder of Ramento only indicates that the citizens of this country are no longer safe because the leaders are not capable of stopping

the extrajudicial killings.

The EBF believed that the late bishop was murdered because of his criticism of the Arroyo government.

The EBF is a fellowship of bishops in the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines and the Roman Catholic Church. — With Ben Serrano, AP