Kalinga bishop asks residents to talk to Fr Madhu slay suspect

BAGUIO CITY – The bishop of Kalinga has called on the residents to protect priests and nuns during the first death anniversary of the murder of Fr. Fransiskus Madhu, a Society of the Divine Word Indonesian priest assigned in Lubuagan town. Bishop Prudencio Andaya, Apostolic Vicar of the Tabuk Vicariate, urged Kalinga leaders to finally help them bring in the killers. Fr Madhu, 31, originally of Flores Island in Indonesia, was about to say Mass in Mabungtot Primary School in Lubuagan on Palm Sunday last year when the suspect identified as Nestor Wailan shot him six times with an M16. Wailan is from Antonio Canao village in Lubuagan and remains at large while one of his companions, Acmor Bonggawon, was already arrested in July last year. He managed to escape but was rearrested in August. Andaya said that talking with the parents and relatives of Wailan is the most careful thing to do so that the incident would not escalate into a tribal war. "As a bishop, I have pleaded that if ever the government will act on the case, it will not escalate into tribal violence whether it be arrest or reprimand," he said during the dialogue in Tabuk City attended by priests and government officials. "As much as possible, we want the case solved in a non-violent manner," he said. The Kalinga-Apayao Religious Sector Association (KARSA) said that six religious leaders were killed in Upper Kalinga in recent years. This even included a Catholic nun and a pastor of the Iglesia ni Cristo. KARSA, a loose grouping of religious leaders in Kalinga, said that the killing of Fr Madhu is "most tragic and scandalous given the innocence and vocation of the victim, the brutal nature of the killing, and timing of the killing." - GMANews.TV