Slain Masbate teacher laid to rest

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – A public school teacher slain in Palanas, Masbate last July 7 was laid to rest Saturday.

While police are still probing the killing of 27-year-old Mark Francisco, which party-list ACT Teachers claimed was its member, they are also now investigating the death threats reportedly received by two priests who said Mass during his wake.

Reports said Msgr. Aquino Atendido and Fr. Pablito Bendibil Jr. got the threats after denouncing Francisco’s killing as politically motivated during the Mass.

Francisco, a teacher at San Francisco Elementary School in Palanas town, was on his way home together with his fellow teachers, all of them aboard motorcycles, when he was killed.

Police said the teachers alighted from their motorcycles to cross a creek when two ski mask-wearing men also on a motorcycle fired at Francisco with an M-16 rifle.

Francisco’s family refused to take part in a rally of ACT Teachers denouncing the killing, saying they wanted to keep the funeral a “private activity.”

Francisco’s family claimed that he was not a member of the party-list group. A fellow teacher corroborated this.