Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde on Monday announced the arrest of four suspects in the killing of Fr. Richmond Nilo in Nueva Ecija last month.
In a press briefing in Camp Crame, Albayalde showed video footage of suspect Omar Mallari a.k.a. “Bulik,” admitting to the killing in exchange for a payment.
The PNP said Mallari had been recruited by Rolando Garcia, who in turn was asked by primary suspect Manuel Torres to scout for a gun-for-hire to kill the priest. Aside from Garcia, a certain Mario Torres also surrendered to policemen.
Police said Manuel Torres bore a grudge against Nilo after the victim accused his nephew, a seminarian, of abusing three altar boys. The altar boys later recanted their statement against Torres’ nephew.
An initial suspect, Adel Milan, who was identified by a witness, was freed Thursday.
Albayalde also showed and noted the similarities in the facial features in photos of Milan, Mallari and the sketch of a then-unknown suspect before the arrests were made.
Mallari’s arrest also came after police recovered vehicle registration papers in his name covering the engine block of a Nissan Sentra, which had been burnt and sold for scrap shortly after the killing.
Persons using the vehicle were seen watching the priest before the killing.
Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Amado Corpus said Mallari admitted that he was paid P100,000 to kill Nilo.
During an interrogation after his arrest on June 29 in Arayat, Pampanga, Mallari pointed to Torres as the one who promised to pay him and his companions P100,000 to kill the priest.
Torres, when confronted by interrogators, refused to respond to Mallari’s accusations.
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief director Roel Obusan said Torres is the uncle of Christopher Torres, who had a pending case for allegedly molesting three of Nilo’s altar boys.