(18 October 2011) - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima declared support to the quest of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente to give justice to the kiling of Bishop Alberto B. Ramento. De Lima made the statement before a group of bishops and priests who visited her for a dialogue in the afternoon of October 18, 2011.

 

Bishop Joselito Cruz, the Church's General Secretary, expressed appreciation to De Lima saying he puts high hopes to the Justice Secretary's words. Bishop Cruz led the group of clergy in an hour-long meeting with Secretary De Lima.

 

 

Reverend Gilbert Garcia, a priest of the Diocese of Tarlac, recalled the various death threats the bishop had received through text messages and the suspicious repeated presence of unidentified motorcycle-riding individuals around the Church several weeks before he was slain.

 

Attorney Amelia Sato said Bishop Ramento's case deserves support from the Justice Department. Sato, who represents the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), said it was apparent that the police were bent to downplay the political motive of the killing since day one. Then Tarlac PNP Provincial Director and now PNP Chief General Nicanor Bartolome announced the case as finally resolved and closed barely three days after the bishop was found dead.

 

The group noted that they found it ironic that five years after no one ever gets convicted despite the claim of the PNP that they have arrested and detained the bishop’s killers. Presiding Judge Cesar Aganon of Regional Trial Court, Tarlac Branch, warned the prosecution for continously failing to present its witness to sustain its claim against the four suspects.

 

De Lima endorsed the case of Bishop Ramento to Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III who heads the Justice Department's newly created Tak Force on Extralegal Killings. She said she wants to have an assessment of the case and will summon its handling prosecutor and other police officers who were involved in the investigation.

 

The group also expresed their concern before the Justice Secretary on the killing of Fr. Fausto Tentorio, an Italian Catholic priest in the Diocese of Kidapawan. The priest was a missionary worker helping the Manobo tribespeople in Arakan, North Cotabato. Fr. Tentorio was gunned down on October 17 and suffered eight bullet wounds from his assassin.

 

Fr. Tentorio was the second churchpeople who had fallen victim to poitical killing under the one year old government of President Benigno Aquino III. Nardy Sabino, Secretary General of the Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR), who also joined the group, said the killing betrays the continuing assault on churchpeople and spells more the need to end impunity.