Justice for Fr. Pops Tentorio –KMU

We condemn the killing of Fr. Fausto Tentorio, an Italian rural missionary and indigenious people’s advocate, in Kidapawan City yesterday.

Fr. Tentorio, who has been serving the indigenous peoples in Mindanao for around 30 years, is already the third of missionary from his order to be killed in Mindanao. The other two are Fr. Tullio Favali who was killed by a paramilitary group in 1985 and Fr. Salvador Carzedda in 1992.

We hold the Aquino government responsible for Fr. Tentorio’s death. This latest killing of a human rights defender and a staunch anti-mining advocate is another clear proof that extrajudicial killings persist and are promoted by the Aquino regime.

There is reason to believe that the killing is related to the government and military’s intensifying counter-insurgency program in Mindanao, especially in mining areas, following the punitive action undertaken by the New People’s Army against destructive mining firms in Surigao del Sur.

The Aquino government is using the military to uphold the interest of foreign mining firms which are throwing national minorities out of their homelands, driving farmers out of their lands, and plundering and destroying the country’s natural resources.

The counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan, which is being disguised as a development campaign of the Aquino government, is a program of human rights violations and the killing of progressive leaders, activists, church-people and civilians.

We demand that justice be immediately served for Fr. Tentorio. Concerned agencies should immediately investigate the incident and prosecute the perpetrators.

We demand an immediate end to extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations and the junking of Oplan Bayanihan. We demand that justice be attained for all victims of extra-judicial killings.

We also call on the international community to condemn this latest case of extra-judicial killing and put pressure on the Aquino government to immediately stop all forms of human rights violations in the Philippines.