The Commission on Human Rights has launched a probe into the killing of activist priest Father Marcelito “Tito” Paez and 14 alleged members of the New People’s Army who figured in a clash with soldiers in Batangas.
“There was a priest in Nueva Ecija, Fr. Paez who was killed and…actually the commission sent immediately a fact-finding team and we’re awaiting the report of that killing but he was killed in cold blood, it was an assassination and we raised the question, was he assassinated because of his activism? His work for justice? Is this going to be a pattern?,” CHR chairperson Chito Gascon said in a press conference.
Paez, 72, a resident of Barangay Baloc, Santo Domingo town, was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Jaen, Nueva Ecija on Monday night.
Human rights group Karapatan said Paez was the former parish priest in Guimba and coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines in Central Luzon.