IP condemns brutal killing of Italian priest

Indigenous people condemns in the highest form the brutal killing of Father Fausto Tentorio, an Italian priest. This heinous crime is clear cut assault on the human rights not only the priests who genuinely serve the masses but also of the indigenous people.

Fr. Tentorio also known as Fr. Pops is not only a simple priest who performs his vocation to serve God. He is also staunch advocate of the indigenous people rights. Since 1985, Fr. Tentorio has been helping the indigenous Lumad through various programs in education, livelihood and agriculture. He also actively campaigns for depending the nation patrimony against foreign plunderer despite him coming from a foreign land. In gratitude to his advocacy in promoting IP human rights, Lumad in North Cotabato have protected Fr. Pops when the members of the paramilitary group once tried to abduct him.

KATRIBU partylist is also alarmed with the growing number of human rights violation done to the indigenous people and its advocates. According to KALUMARAN, one of their affiliates in Mindanao, Fr. Pops death was preceded this year by the deaths of Lumad Higaonon leader Datu Lapugotan and his nephew Solte San-ogan in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, as well as the deaths of Jimmy Arion, Nicomedes de la Peña, Sr., Nicomedes de la Peña, Jr., and Ruben Gatong in San Fernando, Bukidnon. Lumad paramilitary groups formed and supported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines are responsible for their deaths.

Pres. Aquinos declaration to use civilian paramilitary to protect mining invest is like a go signal to the blood thirsty armed paramilitary units to run loose like a rabid dog that goes after those people they perceive to be anti mining and dissenter. With the killing of Fr. Tenorio, we cannot think of anyone who can commit such but the paramilitary controlled by the military in North Cotabato. We likewise hold the Aquino administration is to be held responsible for the killing of Fr. Pops.

It seems that the Aquino administration is deviating from its “tuwid na daan” and we're going toward the same path as his predecessor. The Aquino administration is slowly showing its true color, a yellow with blood stain in his hand.-30-