4 nabbed in bishop's slay; police insist case isn't political

Police said they arrested on Thursday evening four suspects in the slay of Aglipayan bishop Alberto Ramento and maintained that the killing was not politically-motivated. Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome, provincial police director of Tarlac, identified the four suspects as Michael Viado, Michael Quitalig alias Bembol, Raymon Perez, and Joel Villanueva. The four were presented before reporters on Friday by Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Calderon. Quitalig was arrested in Arayat, Pampanga; Villanueva and Perez in Maliwalo village in Tarlac City; and Viado, in San Isidro village in Tarlac City. A fifth suspect, Efren Abaya alias Efren Suarez, is still at large. Bartolome also tagged Viado, out on probation for frustrated homicide, as the one who stabbed Ramento. Viado was supposedly the leader of the "Magic Group", the criminal gang to which the suspects were alleged to belong. Bartolome said in a statement that the suspects’ arrest confirmed that the killing of Ramento, a known staunch government critic, was a case of robbery with homicide and not a politically-motivated killing as alleged by militant groups. Ramento, chairman of the Supreme Council of Bishops of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) or the Aglipayan church, was found dead with several stab wounds inside his convent in Tarlac City before dawn Tuesday. Tarlac City police chief Superintendent Rudy Lacadin said the group was named after Magic Star, a mall in the city where its members engaged in petty crimes, mostly shoplifting and cellular phone snatching. Police said the group’s plan was hatched after Ramento conducted a public feeding program for poor children in Tarlac City. Ramento actively campaigned against the spate of extrajudicial killings and moves to amend the 1987 Constitution. He also campaigned for striking workers in Hacienda Luisita, a sugar plantation in Tarlac owned by the Cojuangco clan. According to authorities, the arrested suspects said that the gang has about 30 members, many of whom were remnants of the so-called "Dagis Palengke", a group of young snatchers who victimized market goers in the city. The manhunt for the suspects reached as far as Arayat town in nearby Pampanga province where Quitalig, to first suspect to fall, was nabbed. On probation for theft, he was released in July this year. A dzRH radio report said police arrested Quitalig at his aunt's house. "We sent him to his aunt's house in Pampanga. We tried to get our son away from his friends last September 28 so he would not get into trouble because he's been hanging out with troublemakers," Quitalig's mother Teresita told dzRH radio. City officials had offered a reward of P50,000 for information leading to the arrest of the suspects. -Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV