PIME regional superior Fr Giovanni Re denies rumours that police is on the verge of arresting the instigators of Fr Tentorio’s murder in the Arakan Valley on 17 October. Many local families have been forced to leave in an atmosphere of tensions and fear over new killings.

Manila (AsiaNews) – “Nothing certain is known about the instigators of Fr Tentorio’s murder,” said Fr Giovanni Re, regional superior of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). Speaking to AsiaNews, he dismissed rumours that the main instigator of the missionary’s murder, which took place on 17 October in Mindanao, had been identified. Reports to that effect had been relayed in Filipino media, and picked up by media in Italy. In the past ten days, “contradictory information appeared on national media,” the clergyman explained, however “the authorities havesaid that nothing certain was known even though certain leads are promising.”

The situation in the Arakan Valley is still tense, Fr Re noted. A local farmer was killed a few days after Fr Tentorio. Residents in the village where the slain missionary worked until his death were moved out last week. This morning, a group of volunteer medical doctors left to bring aid to the displaced families.

Meanwhile, the interfaith pilgrimage organised by Catholics and Protestants in the diocese will end tomorrow back in Kidapawan.

Participants had left on Saturday for the Arakan Valley to hold a prayer vigil for Fr Tentorio and other priests, Catholic and non-Catholic, who died on the line of duty for the poor and the marginalised. (S.C.)

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