A Protestant church has dismissed military denials by reiterating a left-wing coalition’s accusation that the army was responsible for Monday’s killing of Italian Catholic priest Father Fausto Tentorio in the southern Philippines.

United Church of Christ in the Philippines Bishop Modesto Villasanta today repeated a claim made by the National Democratic Front earlier this week that Father Tentorio of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions was the victim of an “extra-judicial killing” by elements of the military.

Many church members are part of the coalition which is made up of left-leaning political parties, religious and workers’ groups.

“We in the UCCP believe many [killings] are perpetrated by those in government…. We are sure that those doing this are from the ranks of the armed forces,” Bishop Villasanta said in a statement.

A gunman shot Father Tentorio in the garage of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish church in Arakan Town, North Cotabato before escaping on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice police said.

The military vigorously denied the claim.

“It is absurd to accuse the military of masterminding the murder of Father Pops [Father Tentorio’s nickname],” Colonel Leopoldo Galon, of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said yesterday.

The colonel challenged the NDF to prove their accusations and called on the group to “help us and the police gather evidence to catch this Godless murderer.”