Witnesses afraid to help cops on Indon priest’s slay

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Witnesses are unwilling to come out and help shed light on the killing of Indonesian priest Francisco Madhu Lubuagan in Kalinga province on Palm Sunday, authorities said.

Senior Superintendent Severino Cruz, Kalinga police director, said many people saw the crime, but are afraid to talk.

The 31-year-old Madhu was in the company of several catechists and church members in Sitio Dugnat when a certain Nestor Wailan and three other men accosted them for unknown reasons.

Wailan, who was positively identified by witnesses as the one who gunned down Madhu with an M-16 rifle, was later taken in for questioning by members of the Kalinga police, Chief Superintendent Raul Gonzales, Cordillera Administrative Region police director, said Monday.

Investigators found six spent M-16 shells at the crime scene.

Senior Inspector Lavis Camdas, public information officer of the Kalinga police, said they have set up checkpoints in the Kalinga towns of Tabuk and Bontoc to arrest Wailan’s cohorts, two of them identified as Joel Awingan and Acmor Bonggawon.

Camdas said Wailan’s group is not allied with Rustom Dickpus, the so-called "Robin Hood of Lubuagan," whose gang is involved in highway robberies and killings.

Camdas said Cruz is personally supervising the investigation.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) condemned the killing. Caloocan Bishop Deogracia Iñiguez Jr., CBCP media affairs chairman, called on authorities to solve the slaying without delay.

Madhu had served as the assistant of Fr. Gerry Gudmalin, parish priest of Lubuagan town, since 2005.

Madhu’s remains were brought to St. Williams Cathedral in Bulanao, Tabuk yesterday morning.

They will be airlifted today to Villamor Airbase and then brought to the Christ the King Seminary for burial on April 9. – With Andy Zapata Jr.