Four suspects in Fr. Nilo slay case now in custody

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police said on Monday that the suspects, including the gunman, in the killing of Catholic priest Fr. Richmond Nilo in Nueva Ecija are now in custody.

Authorities identified the confessed gunman as Omar Mallari, 25, who was nabbed in Arayat in Pampanga on June 22.

In an extrajudicial confession executed in the presence of Mallari’s mother and a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office, Mallari said he had been promised P100,000 by the masterminds of the killing, but only received P6,000, which he shared with four others who are considered accomplices to the crime.

READ: Gunman in Ecija priest slay held, admits killing

Other suspects were identified as Manuel Torres, Marius Albis and Ronaldo Garcia, Chief Supt. Amador Corpus, Central Luzon police director, said.

While Mallari and Torres were arrested, Albis and Garcia voluntarily turned themselves in to authorities, he said.

Corpus said Manuel Torres was the financier. Torres allegedly held a grudge against the slain priest for filing charges of molestation and rape of minor altar servers against his nephew, Christopher Torres, who was then a seminarian.

The case was supposedly dismissed but Nilo pushed for it to be revived.

“Manuel Torres is the uncle of then seminarian Christopher Torres, whom Nilo filed charges of molestation and rape of  three altar servers who were minors. Christopher is the nephew of Manuel, so he was angry at Nilo because he didn’t become a priest due to the charges. [S]o we’re looking into that lead but as of now it is not yet very safe to say that it’s only in that angle,” Corpus said in Filipino.

Adell Milan, whom police earlier considered as the “prime suspect” in the Nilo murder case after being identified by an altar boy as the one who shot the priest, was released from police custody due to mistaken identity.

Nilo, the third member of the Catholic clergy to be killed since December of 2017, was shot dead by suspects who were riding a motorcycle just before celebrating Mass in a chapel in Brgy. Mayamot in Zaragoza in Nueva Ecija weeks ago. - Philstar.com intern Christian De Lano Deiparine