Photo of slain Italian priest Fr. Fausto Tentorio in the PIME website
MANILA – An Italian missionary was gunned down Monday morning outside his parish church in Arakan Valley, Cotabato as he was preparing to attend the Presbyterium of the Cotabato diocese in southern Philippines.
Reports said Fr. Fausto Tentorio, a PIME priest, was approached by a lone gunman who shot him in the head and chest before fleeing on a motorcycle.
Witnesses were not able to describe the face of the gunman, who was reportedly wearing a crash helmet.
The priest was rushed to the hospital in Kidapawan City but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Police are still investigating the motive and the identity of the lone gunman.
Prior to his death, Fr. Tentorio revealed in the website of PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) that armed men who introduced themselves as members of Bagani were casing his parish convent and asking for his whereabouts early in the month.
The armed men were also reportedly asking around the neighborhood as to Fr. Tentorio’s whereabouts.
Villagers however declined to reveal the priest’s location.
One of the armed men reportedly said they “will just arrest” the priest and bring him to their superiors.
“Worried of the possible consequences, the people denied to them that I was there. They told me and my companions to stay quiet in the house and hide there because the Bagani were looking for me. We decided to listen to their advice because to try to run would have been too dangerous. We did not know how many of them were there, and where they were hiding,” the priest narrated.
On Monday, however, Fr. Tentorio became the third member of the PIME congregation to be killed in Mindanao.
The first was Fr. Tulio Favali, who was killed in Tulunan town also in Cotabato in 1985. The other was Fr. Salvador Carzedda who was gunned down in Zamboanga City in 1992.
According to local Mindanao-based online publication www.mindanews.com, the slain priest was active in his advocacy of the protecting the rights of indigenous tribes in the province and was a staunch anti-mining advocate.
Fr. Tentorio had organized the tribal organization called the Tinananon-Kulamanon Lumadnong Panaghiusa or TIKULPA.
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