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Philippine legislator admits helping priest's suspected killers

Helped obtain pro bono lawyer services
Philippine legislator admits helping priest's suspected killers

A Philippine legislator has admitted to providing legal counsel to the suspected killers of Italian Father Fausto Tentorio, pictured here. (Photo courtesy of Barug Katungod)

Published: August 25, 2015 08:51 AM GMT
Updated: August 24, 2015 11:07 PM GMT

A Philippine legislator has admitted to providing lawyers for the alleged killers of Father Fausto Tentorio, an Italian missionary who was killed outside his parish house in October 2011.

Rep. Nancy Catamco said the family of the suspects, who live in her district, sought her help after the two men were accused in the murder of Tentorio in Arakan town in North Cotabato province.

Catamco told ucanews.com that she helped the suspects, Jimmy and Robert Ato, obtain counsel, asking a local law firm to represent them pro bono.

"The Ato brothers obviously could not afford to hire the legal services of a law firm that could defend them in court. So I did ask the help of some lawyers in Kidapawan City to provide legal services, pro bono, to the Ato brothers as they face the accusations against them. If this is wrong, then everything in this world is wrong," she said.

In an earlier statement, Catamco stressed that the brothers have not been charged with any crime.

"They remain innocent ... They are not fugitives, for there is no warrant of arrest issued against them," Catamco said in a statement. 

"[They] are entitled under the law to be represented by counsel during the whole proceedings of [the] criminal investigation," the legislator said.

"The state is duty-bound to provide the services of a counsel for the accused if they cannot afford one," she added. 

 

'Have faith'

Italian Father Peter Geremia who, along with Tentorio, is a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, told an Aug. 13 House Human Rights Committee hearing that the Ato brothers are being protected by Catamco.

Catamco, however, noted that providing a lawyer "is not a crime." She also denied that the suspected killers are working for her.

"They are living with their families in Arakan … They are not under my custody," she said, adding that "there is no legal reason that I can take custody of them."

"The last time I checked, there has been no warrant of arrest issued against them," Catamco said.

The legislator accused Geremia of "grandstanding" during the committee hearing in congress. 

"He has spent too much time on muddling up the issue. I could only surmise that he resorted to incendiary rhetoric because he is getting impatient that the [Department of Justice] has yet to finish the investigation," Catamco said. 

She urged the Italian priest to "have faith" in the investigators. "For the sake of propriety, this representation would wish to admonish all parties, witnesses and others to be mindful that it is not appropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation," she added. 

"Let us all exercise personal restraint and have faith in this democratic process," Catamco said.

When asked to respond to the legislator's statements, Father Geremia said he hoped Catamco would work to see that the murder case is fully investigated.

"I hope she will also help expedite the resolution of the case, give Father [Tentorio] justice just as how she helped the suspects," Geremia told ucanews.com.

Catamco, who heads the Committee on Indigenous Cultural Communities and Indigenous Peoples in the House of Representatives, made headlines in recent weeks after allegedly ordering the failed eviction of hundreds of indigenous people who had sought refuge at a Protestant mission house in Davao City.

 

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