Two civilians charged for the killing of the priest Fausto Tentorio six years ago will no longer face the criminal complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation.
Instead, the NBI will go after two military officials and nine other suspects after the Department of Justice panel released the findings of its investigation into the slaying of the Italian missionary and activist in 2011.
The DoJ ordered the NBI to drop murder charges against Jose Sultan Sampulna and Dima Sampulna, who were suspected of gunning down Tentorio as he was about to board a vehicle inside the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Arakan, North Cotabato on Oct. 17, 2011.
The Justice department instead recommended charges against Philippine Army Lt. Col. Joven Gonzales and Major Mark Espiritu, along with suspected accomplices Jimmy Ato, Roberto Ato, Jan Corbala, Nene Durado, Kaing Labi, Joseph Basol, Edgar Enoc, Romulo Tapgos, and William Buenaflor.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II previously issued Department Order No. 208, directing Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong to revisit the case, as the indictment of several persons implicated in the murder was stalled.
Corbala, Durado, Labi, Basol and Enoc, Ong said, were part of the “plain and simple murder” of Tentorio, also known as “Father Pops,” who was killed by a lone gunman.
The panel said Robert and Jimmy Ato, Corbata, Durado, an unidentified motorcycle driver, and two others on board another motorcycle “took part in the execution” of the priest who was tagged as a supporter of the New People’s Army.
Corbala, the DoJ panel said, was a military asset who, in a meeting, told Durado, Labi, Basol, Enoc, and Bayawan the military wanted Tentorio dead because he was supporting the communist rebels.
The soldiers did nothing “before and after” Tentorio was shot, the panel added, adding that the priest’s supposed affiliation with leftist groups was “not important” in the reinvestigation they conducted.
“The inaction of the military personnel before and after the gunshots were fired reveal their complicity to the killing of Fr. Pops. Where conspiracy is established, the precise modality or extent of participation of each individual conspirator becomes secondary,” the report read.
Tentorio was the third priest of the Pontificio Instituto Missioni Estere (PIME or Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) congregation who was murdered in the Philippines.
The PIME Philippines blog said two other Italian members of their congregation — Father Tullio Favali and Father Salvatore Carzedda — were murdered before Tentorio. All three missionaries were murdered in Mindanao: Tentorio and Favali in North Cotabato and Carzedda in Zamboanga City.
Tentorio, who was 59, was said to be a staunch anti-mining advocate who had previously received threats to his life.
PIME Philippines said “Father Pops” ad a near-death experience during one of his visits to the lumad indigenous communities in Kitao-tao, Bukidnon province in 2003.
In his own account about the incident, Tentorio wrote: “They told me that these men belong to the group called Bagani, that they come from outside the area, and that their intention was to harm me, specifically by throwing hand grenades at me while I am passing by. This information was not new to me. In fact, I heard it the day before,” Tentorio wrote.
Tentorio, who had been serving as a missionary in the Philippines since 1978, wrote that concerned citizens told him that the “Bagani” group would cut off his head, roast his ears and eat them.
Father Pops was born January 7, 1952 in St. Mary of Rovagnate, and raised in Santa Maria Hoe’ in Lecco, Italy. He was ordained in 1977 and left for the Philippines the following year. He worked with Christian, Muslim and indigenous B’laan communities in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat before transferring to the mission in Arakan.