PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde confirmed on Friday, June 15, the arrest of a suspect in the killing of Catholic priest Father Richmond Nilo.
The Central Luzon police said Adell Roll Milan was arrested around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday in Barangay Malapit, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija.
Albayalde said one of the altar servers positively identified Milan as the person who shot Nilo.
The priest was about to say Mass in San Pablo Chapel in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija on Sunday, June 10, when motorcycle-riding assailants shot him. He was killed in front of the chapel’s altar.
Earlier, Central Luzon police chief Amador Corpus said they were considering five persons of interest in Nilo's killing.
Corpus said further investigation revealed that Milan is allegedly a member of a gun-for-hire group and former drug surrenderer.
Nilo was the third priest killed in the country in the last six months.
His killing had prompted Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, a former head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, to call on President Rodrigo Duterte to stop the “verbal persecution” of priests, which Villegas said has emboldened attacks against the clergy.
The President responded by again criticizing the priests and the Catholic Church leaders.
Police announced the arrest of the suspect on the same day that Nilo was laid to rest in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija.
Milan is now under the custody of Nueva Ecija police and a case for murder is already being filed against him.
"This development will bring us closer to the real motive behind Fr. Nilo's death as we are still conducting follow-up operations for the possible arrest of other personalities involved. This also proves that, indeed, your police is exerting all efforts to immediately solve cases and put behind the bars of justice those who are responsible for these lawlessness," Corpus said. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo/SunStar Philippines/with reports from JTD/SunStar Pampanga)