Aglipayan Bishop Stabbed Dead

[istoryador]

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Priest doubts robbery angle in bishop’s killing


By Thea Alberto
INQ7.net
Last updated 06:37pm (Mla time) 10/04/2006


A FELLOW clergyman of slain Philippine Independent Church bishop Alberto Ramento dismissed police theories that the prelate’s death was the offshoot of a robbery.

"We are not resolved that this is just a petty crime. That robbery (angle) is part of the deeper angle, that this is a political killing,” Father Gilbert Garcia, a close friend of Ramento, said in a phone interview.

Ramento was found dead of multiple stab wounds in his convent at Tarlac early Tuesday.

Police said Ramento's cellular phone and the cash collection of the church were missing.

But Garcia, quoting Ramento’s four children, said the bishop " received death threats on his cell phone before he died."

Garcia said the text messages warned Ramento to stop opposing charter change, withdraw his support for the victims of Hacienda Luisita and stop his advocacy against political killings.

Ramento was active in organizations and movements agitating for social reforms and an end to human rights violations blamed on the Arroyo administration

[istoryador]

Pati bishop wa ilha. Gi-ihaw pa gyud. Naunsa na man ni?

[potterboy]

The fact that he is in Tarlac and he fights for the farmers there in Hacienda Luisita and his being an advocate for political killings, is one good angle.

[istoryador]

Killer ‘toyed’ with Ramento, says fact-finding mission

Scenario made to ‘look like robbery’

By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Last updated 07:07pm (Mla time) 10/09/2006


“THE killer toyed with him like a cat playing with a mouse.”

This was how lawyer Rex Fernandez, a member of a fact-finding mission, described on Monday the killing of Aglipayan Bishop Alberto Ramento on October 3.

Citing information gathered by the nine-member mission that looked into the murder, Fernandez said Ramento was initially stabbed twice while sleeping inside his room at the San Sebastian Parish in Tarlac City.

The killer reportedly watched as the 70-year old bishop struggled to get help.

After Ramento collapsed near the stairs just outside his room, the killer stabbed him four more times, Fernandez said.

Two other incisions were made on Ramento, one in the neck and another on his ring finger, to make it appear that the victim had struggled, the mission said in a two-page report.

“Clearly, they were made to make the whole thing look (like) robbery,” according to the report. “The neck wound is at least superficial and can be seen as an afterthought or as a flourish by the killer who was ordered to make it look (like) robbery.”

Fernandez said these “show wounds” suggested that the killer had been “taught what to do.”

“The most evil thing was that he really intended to kill him and was even very proud of it,” Fernandez said in a press conference at the Iglesia Filipina Independiente Cathedral in Manila. “He was playing with his victim.”

The mission came out with its own version of the murder in an effort to counter the official police findings that dismissed the killing as plain robbery.

The mission was composed of representatives from the human rights group Karapatan, Promotion of Church People’s Response, Public Interest Law Center, Health Action for Human Rights, and the Aglipayan Church, which is how the Iglesia Filipina Independiente or Philippine Independent Church to which Ramento belonged, is more popularly known.

But Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome rejected the mission’s findings and said the Tarlac police “stand pat on the results of our investigation.”

Fernandez said Ramento could have been killed by a lone assailant, contrary to the Tarlac police’s version that pinned the blame on alleged gang members Michael Viado, Michael Quitalig, Raymon Perez and Joel Villanueva.

He said the killer also probably used two different knives, as shown by the differences in angles and entry points in the victim’s chest and back.

Fernandez said he suspected a bayonet was used in initially stabbing Ramento in the chest, saying the wound penetrated the sternum (breast bone) en route to the heart.

The mission criticized the investigation conducted by the Tarlac police.

Fernandez noted that the crime scene was not sealed off and that. within two hours of the body’s discovery, the city mayor, the barangay (village) chair and a councilman were in the area.

“The scene of the crime investigation was inefficient and haphazard,” he said. “The crime scene was adulterated.”

In a statement, Ramento’s two children further disputed the robbery angle, noting that the two missing items in the bishop’s room -- a DVD player and his ring -- had disappeared on two different occasions.

Aldos, the eldest, and Ichey, the youngest, said the DVD player had been reported missing two weeks before the ring was supposedly taken at the time of the murder.

“It’s perplexing that the police recovered both of the items and presented them to media together,” they said in the statement. “In the two weeks that had passed, it’s also surprising that the so-called robbers had not yet disposed of the DVD when in fact they were supposedly notorious.”

Jigs Clamor, the head of the fact-finding team, said the findings and circumstances strongly suggested a motive way beyond simple robbery.

“It seems that there’s a script involved here,” he told the Inquirer.

With a report from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

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SALBAHIS! Barbaric! Diabolical KILLER. Poor boys they were made fall guys.

Clearly this is a politically motivated killing sponsored by no other than the government.

[istoryador]

Another Aglipayan priest murdered


By Thea Alberto
INQ7.net
Last updated 06:41pm (Mla time) 10/09/2006


LESS than a week after Philippine Independent Church (PIC) Bishop Alberto Ramento was killed in his convent, another priest of the church also popularly known as Aglipayan, was murdered in his home in Surigao del Sur, police said Monday.

Chief Superintendent Antonio Nanas, Caraga Region police chief, said Dionisio Gingging, 54, was shot and stabbed by five still unidentified persons.

Nanas said the killers barged into Gingging’s residence at Purok (sub-village) Sunkis, Barangay (village) Bajao, Tago town around 5 a.m. Sunday.

He said they were eyeing a personal grudge as the possible motive for the murder.

"The suspects used a pistol and a sundang (bladed weapon) that caused the priest's instant death. Mukhang malaki ang galit dun sa pari (It appears there was great anger towards the priest)," said Nanas in a phone interview.

Nanas said he already ordered the region's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to hasten its investigation of the crime.

Gingging’s murder came the same day the militant Promotion of Church People’s Rights said at least five more Aglipayan priests feared they were targets for political killing.

Several priests of the church, which has its roots in the Philippine revolution against Spain and has maintained a militant tradition, are closely involved with activist groups and a number are among what human rights groups estimate are the more than 750 victims of extrajudicial killings since 2001.

Ramento was stabbed dead in his convent Tuesday last week in what police said was a robbery. Authorities have arrested four alleged robbers they said were responsible for the bishop’s death.

But militant groups, Ramento’s colleagues, friends and even family say they doubt the police angle and suspect the bishop’s death had to do with his outspoken human rights advocacy and his criticism of the Arroyo administration.

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Naunsa naman tawon ni uy! Brazen na kaayo ug halata na ang pattern aning mga patay sa militante. I know the military and the government NALIPAY aning hitaboa.

[potterboy]

unsa diay ilang mga gipangtrabaho nganong kontrahan man sila sa gobyerno?

[FK]

before i could say that it could have been a robbery...

but now. "Another Aglipayan priest murdered"



tsk... tsk... tsk...

[baron]

The police authorities should look into this matter seriously. It seems that despite the order to stop political killings coupled with the creation of an investigative body to investigate extrajudicial killings did not stop the people behind these killings.

Could it be that these people really wanted to put up a bad image by destabilizing this administration?

[FK]

Could it be that these people really wanted to put up a bad image by destabilizing this administration?

granting that it is true, then the current administration is indeed inutile.

[ucalypso]

before i could say that it could have been a robbery...

but now. "Another Aglipayan priest murdered"



tsk... tsk... tsk...

More killings to come from this evil regime.