the Aglipayan Church, was shot and hacked to death as he left his house to perform a Sunday service, BosNewsLife established Tuesday, October 10.
Three men wearing bonnets attacked priest Dionisio Gingging, 53, just outside his house in Bajao village in Tago town on October 8 at the Tandag of Surigao del Sur area, said Senior Superintendent Alex Ga, the provincial police director.
"The victim was shot first several times and even if he was already dead, the culprits hacked him," Ga told reporters. The motive for the killing was not immediately known, but Gregg Neil Tolentino, the priest’s associate in a small logging business here, said it could be business-related.
Tolentino said the pastor owned a four-hectare timberland, which many loggers were interested in. Chief Superintendent Antonio Nanas told The Associated Press (AP) news agency that the murder might have been prompted by a personal grudge.
KILLERS HATED PRIEST
"It appears the killers hated the priest by the way they killed him," Nanas said. Surigao del Sur Governor Vicente Pimentel condemned the killing, saying “this kind of lawlessness should not go unpunished."
Pimentel said he had instructed the police to exert all efforts to apprehend the culprits “and give justice, especially to a religious man."
Antonio Azarcon, a lawyer for the human rights group Karapatan, described the victim as a "man of God who had been active in helping the poor and fighting injustice." The government has been pressured to stop rising violence against church leaders, journalists and human rights activists in the country.
The murder came as another set-back for the Philippine Independent Church, which has experienced previous bloodshed because of its involvement in social causes. The church is a Christian denomination of the Catholic tradition in the form of a national church. It is better known as the Aglipayan Church after its founder, Gregorio Aglipay.
