Parish priest killed in Navotas robbery

A 48-year-old Catholic priest, who was supposed to celebrate a morning Mass at a depressed area in the coastal town of Navotas last Sunday was killed by holdup men last Saturday.

Fr. Romeo Encinas Asuzano, parish priest of San Lorenzo Ruiz and Companion Martyrs Parish at Phase 1-C, Kaunlaran Village, North Bay Boulevard South, was riding his bicycle on the C-3 bridge when two men armed with bladed weapons waylaid him at around 9 p.m.

Superintendent Billy Beltran, Navotas police chief, said the priest tried to defend himself, but was overpowered and stabbed once in the left armpit by one of the suspects.

The robbers escaped on foot toward a squatters’ colony on Pama Sawata, Kaunlaran Village in Caloocan City after divesting the priest of his wallet and cellular phone.

At around 9:30 p.m., PO1 Nelvie Salvador, assigned at the nearby Caloocan City Police Community Precinct 7, found the wounded priest on top of the bridge.

Salvador rushed him to the Tondo Medical Center, but was declared dead on arrival by attending doctors.

Salvador was not immediately able to identify the victim since his wallet was missing.

But the following day, the priest’s parishioners, who became worried over his failure to hold Mass decided to investigate his disappearance.

Witnesses were later found and identified the attackers as Roger Malinao alias Yoyoy of Pama Sawata, Kaunlaran Village, Caloocan City and Reynaldo Francisco alias Onad of Phase 1-C, Kaunlaran Village, Navotas.

The suspects are known robbers in the area and are also being hunted by the local police and the Northern Police District operatives.

NPD director Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr., who visited Azusano’s wake at the San Lorenzo Church yesterday, directed his men to hunt down and arrest the suspects.

Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco has ordered the local police to catch the suspects amid complaints from residents over a series of robbery-holdups along the stretch of C-3 Road and Road 10 in Barangay North Bay Boulevard South.

Meanwhile, a pastor was stabbed and critically injured after he intervened in a quarrel involving four youths yesterday in Malabon City.

Under observation at the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center for stab wounds in the hands and back was Lyndon Banzon, 26, single, a preacher and resident of F-6 Mercedes Apartment in Barangay Baritan, Malabon.

Two of four suspects, all 15, were arrested in Barangay Tanong even as two others are being hunted.

Police records showed the incident took place at 10:45 p.m. along Manapat street in Barangay Tanong.

Banzon tried to pacify the feuding teeners, members of rival groups, and became the object of their ire. — With Jerry Botial