Pari Pinatay!

Subject: Pari Pinatay! January 18th 2008, 9:48 am

TABAWAN, Philippines, JAN. 16, 2008 - 54-Year-Old Missionary Shot by Kidnappers. Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Reynaldo Roda was shot and killed Tuesday in what appears to be an attempted kidnapping.

The 54-year-old priest spent the last 10 years as a missionary in the area where he was slain. He was the parish priest of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Tabawan, in the Apostolic Vicariate of Jolo.

An Oblate associate of the slain priest told that Father Roda was praying in a chapel in the village of Likud Tabawan when about 10 men attacked him. He resisted until one of the men took out a handgun and shot the priest in the head.

A teacher who was with Father Roda was captured by the gunmen. Reynaldo Roda was born in 1954. He made his first vows with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1975 and was ordained a priest in 1980.

Precedent

AsiaNews recalled that another Oblate of Mary Immaculate was shot dead in the same area in 1997. Bishop Benjamin de Jesus was murdered in front of the Jolo Cathedral.

The most recent kidnapping of a missionary in the Philippines was the case of Father Giancarlo Bossi, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. Father Bossi was taken hostage June 10, 2007, and held for more than five weeks.

AsiaNews said the southern island of Mindanao is a region known for the presence of Islamic fundamentalists. The largest group is the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The movement of Abu Sayyaf ("Sword Bearers") is associated with al-Qaida and is also active in the area. Their purported aim is to establish an independent Muslim state in the South Philippines.

Subject: Re: Pari Pinatay! January 18th 2008, 11:06 am

Muslims Mourn Death Of Priest Who Served Them

BONGAO, Philippines (UCAN) Hundreds of Muslims are coming to the parish church here to pay their final respects to a slain priest and condole with the small Church in their province.

Armed men shot and killed Father Jesus Reynaldo Roda, 53, as the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) priest resisted their attempt to take him from the chapel of Notre Dame High School on Tabawan, an island of Tawi-tawi province, on Jan. 15 evening. His body was brought to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish in Bongao, Tawi-tawi, more than 1,100 kilometers south of Manila. Holy Rosary is the closest parish to Tabawan, where Father Roda has headed the Catholic mission for 10 years. The body will lie in wake in the church until it is brought for burial in Cotabato province, on the Mindanao mainland northeast of Bongao, on Jan. 20. Interment in the OMI cemetery is set for Jan. 23.

Perong Dremarld, a Muslim teacher at the Church-run high school on Tabawan, came with 13 other Notre Dame faculty members on the boat that carried the priest's body on the eight-hour trip to Bongao on Jan. 16. "Father Roda would be so pleased to see what is happening here," Dremarld told UCA News on the morning of Jan. 17 in the church packed with women, many of them veiled under Islamic hijab. He admitted could not tell the religion of the men from their attire. But Pointing to more Muslim women arriving with plates of food, he said Mayor Albert Que of Bongao, a Muslim, was coming that day to pay his respects to the slain missioner who helped Tabawan islanders "so much."

Tabawan is one of Tawi-tawi province's 457 islands. Tawi-tawi and neighboring Sulu province comprise the area served by Jolo vicariate, where only 2.2 percent of 1.02 million people are Catholics, according to the latest Catholic directory. The 2006-2007 directory reports 4,690 Catholics belong to the Bongao parish. Dremarld said he believed the sight of people bringing food to share would make Father Roda "happy" because "he always taught us to share what we had with those who are in need." The Muslim school coordinator said the slain priest is "well known" on Tabawan for his work in education and "sharing of goods with the poor."

During Father Roda's decade-long mission on the island, he ministered to 20-30 Catholics and cared for more than 2,000 Muslims. Most of Notre Dame's 400 students are Muslims. In December, Father Roda had assigned Dremarld to coordinate the building of a health clinic for which the priest was seeking funds. "I was to buy the materials this week, but now I am not sure what will happen," the coordinator said, adding that he would pause from these concerns so he could "mourn properly" his late director's death.

Thousands of Muslims and a "handful" of Catholics had gone on procession in Tabawan on Jan. 16 to bring Father Roda's body from near the school to the pier, he reported. "Men and women were crying," Dremarld said. "They loved him because of the way he worked." He recalled Father Roda telling Tabawan people "he never wanted to leave, because (there) he could do his work and had time to pray."

The Holy Rosary parish priest, Oblate Father Rito Daquipil, told UCA News later that the Bongao mayor "promised" OMI officials he would "do all in his power" to find the killers. He also said Governor Sadikul Sahali of Tawi-tawi had met with OMI priests and told them police suspect Father Roda may have been killed by Abu Sayyaf extremists who are being "forced" to flee to Tawi-tawi by military operations targeting their hideouts in Jolo.

Father Roberto Layson, who is based in Cotabato and coordinates the OMI interreligious dialogue program, had suggested another possible scenario. He told UCA News politicians may have been involved in the killing of his confrere, who had denounced fraud and preached against cheating in last year's election. Father Roda is the third OMI priest killed in the vicariate in 11 years. Bishop Benjamin de Jesus of Jolo and Father Benjamin Inocencio died after being shot in 1997 and 2000, respectively.

Subject: Re: Pari Pinatay! January 28th 2008, 1:04 pm

:cry: :cry: lungkot....

Subject: Re: Pari Pinatay! January 26th 2009, 4:32 am

nakakalungkot ang balitang ito..
at sa kahit sino pang mamamatay..
pero kung yung mga tiwaling opisyal ng gobyerno
ang mamamatay..lalo na yung mga opisyal na matagal
ng nagpapahirap sa bayan?!..hasus!oks lang!

» Cha-cha pinatay at binuhay na muli