Second suspect in priest’s slay nabbed

The second suspect in the robbery-slay of a Navotas parish priest last June l2 was arrested last Sunday night in Barangay Sto. Niño, Dinalupihan town in Bataan.

Superintendent Bonifacio Cacho, Bataan police intelligence and investigation chief, identified the suspect as Ronaldo Francisco, alias Onald, a resident of Block 46,Lot ll, Phase l C of Dagat-Dagatan, Navotas and a leader of the Sputnik gang in Tondo, Manila.

Cacho told The STAR that Francisco and his cohort Roger Malinao waylaid Fr. Romy Asuzano at around 9 p.m. while the priest was on his bicycle crossing the C-3 bridge.

When the priest tried to defend himself, one of the suspects stabbed him in the left armpit.

The suspects escaped after divesting the victim of his cell phone and wallet containing P4,000.

PO1 Nelvie Salvador of the nearby Caloocan City Police Community Precinct 7 found Asuzano on top of the bridge at around 9:30 p.m. but failed to identify him in the absence of his wallet.

Asuzano’s parishioners learned of the priest’s fate last Sunday after he failed to show up for a morning Mass.

Agents of the Northern Police District intelligence unit arrested Malinao in an operation in Silang, Cavite last week.

Cacho said they received reports that Francisco went into hiding at his maternal relatives after the incident and was cornered by police operatives led by Senior Inspector Rommel Velasco, Dinalupihan police chief.

The 20-year-old suspect, a high school drop-out, said he did not know that the victim was a parish priest when interviewed by police inside his cell at the Dinalupihan municipal jail. — Raffy Viray