Saturday, October 07, 2006
Cops nab 4 suspects in Aglipayan bishop's killing
By Marna H. Dagumboy
CAMP OLIVAS -- Tarlac policemen arrested on Thursday in Tarlac City and Arayat in Pampanga four men suspected of being behind the killing of Aglipayan Bishop Maximo IX Alberto Ramento.
With the arrest of Michael Quitalig in Arayat, Pampanga and Michael Viado, Raymond Perez, and Joel Villanueva in Tarlac City, on Friday declared the killing of Ramento as solved. The four were presented Friday by National Police Chief Oscar Calderon to members of the media in Camp Crame.
Another suspect, identified as Efren Abaya alias Efren Suarez, is still at large, said Tarlac Police Provincial Office Nicanor Bartolome.
He said initial findings of the police showed that the motive in the killing was robbery with homicide, and debunked suspicion raised by a militant group that the incident was politically motivated.
Bartolome said Viado was the alleged leader of the newly formed "Magic Group", the gang's name. He added that gang members are engaged petty crimes like shoplifting and cell phone snatching.
The Tarlac police also revealed that the gang has 30 members who are remnants of the so-called "dagis palengke" group of young snatchers who preyed on market goers.
Tarlac police, Bartolome added, recovered Ramento's ring and DVD player from the suspects' possession.
Bartolome said the suspects admitted that they did the killing. He said the group killed Ramento after the priest conducted a public bidding for a project intended for poor children.
Ramento was stabbed to death in his church after he allegedly resisted the suspects.
The suspects entered the church through an open hole and went to the second floor where the victim was sleeping. While they were trying to open the safety box where cash donations were being kept, the victim was awakened and tried to fight off the suspects.
He said Viado then priest using a kitchen knife.
Shortly after Ramento was stabbed to death, a number of sectors claimed that his killing could be politically motivated, noting that the victim was a vocal critic of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the province of Tarlac.
Ramento, chairman of the Supreme Council of Bishops of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) or the Aglipayan Church, was found dead inside his convent in Tarlac City before dawn Tuesday.
He was among those who condemned the extrajudicial killings in the country and one of those who opposed the amendment of the 1987 Constitution. He also campaigned for striking workers in Hacienda Luisita, a sugar plantation in Tarlac owned by the Cojuangco clan.
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 no longer capable of stopping the strings of extrajudicial killings."
The EBF believed that the late bishop was murdered "because of his being vocal in criticizing 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.
"We are outraged by the violent manner by which our esteemed co-chairperson was killed. It was an assault that cannot be dismissed merely as another case of robbery and homicide as the police reported. Bishop Ramento was a well-known man of the cloth who lived simply and took public transportation in his diocese where he was murdered," Iñiguez said.
Iñiguez said Ramento's murder is not a mere case of robbery saying "his living quarters in Tarlac City was devoid of the comforts of a man worthy of his office as a bishop. It was just sufficient to lay his tired limbs, another mark of his humility. We are concerned very much by the breakdown of law and order in this country."
"We are gravely concerned that people are assaulted in their very homes or inside the haven of their sanctuaries. We are gravely concerned that the series of killings of ordinary people, courageous human rights and peace advocates have not been resolved and perpetrators not brought to the bars of justice," the prelate added.
He also said they are "gravely concerned" because of the government's lack of political will to put a stop to the killings, which now count as victim Bishop Ramento, a bishop known here and abroad for his staunch support of civil liberties, human rights, national sovereignty and peace. (Sun.Star Pampanga/Sunnex/With VR/MSN)
(October 7, 2006 issue)
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