Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Mayor says pastor's clean but doubts followers By Carlo P. Mallo
MAYOR Rodrigo R. Duterte finds it unthinkable for his friend Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy to order the killing of a tribal chieftain over a piece of land in Barangay Manuel Guianga, Tugbok District, Davao City.
But it's not unlikely that a follower of the pastor may have had a hand in it, he added.
"He (the pastor) would not gamble his honor for a two-hectare parcel of land," Duterte said in an interview last Monday.
The house of Datu Dominador Diarog at Sitio Kahusayan in Barangay Manuel Guianga was peppered with bullets at around 10 p.m. of April 29 while he and his family slept. Datu Diarog was killed while his wife and two children were wounded.
The Tugbok police have hinted at a land issue, the military has accused the New People's Army (NPA), while the NPA has pointed at the military, adding that the killing was at the behest of the pastor.
The mayor said there are some settlers in the lumad area who belong to the pastor's congregation.
"I have called for an investigation right away," Duterte assured, "And as it is not yet finished, I am not prepared to condemn anybody right now."
The mayor at the same time defended the military and Task Force Davao, accused by the NPA of serving as the private army of the pastor.
"It is their duty to guard everybody," Duterte said.
Quiboloy, in his regular evening show on his cable television channel Sonshine Media Network, challenged his detractors to produce anyone from whom he or his congregation has grabbed land for his Prayer Mountain.
This is not the first time that the pastor's group has been whispered about as having grabbed lumad land in the Calinan area. But no one has really stepped forward to back such talks with evidence. (CPM)
