Catholic priest killed in Tawi-tawi after resisting kidnap attempt

By Ronron
January 16, 2008

A Catholic priest was shot dead after he allegedly resisted a group of armed men who wanted to abduct him last Tuesday night in Tawi-tawi province, police said yesterday.

Police identified the victim as Fr. Rey Roda, 53, who serves as Director of Notre Dame school in Barangay Tabawan, South Ubian town.

Roda died due to multiple gunshot wounds and a hack wound all over his body, provincial police director Sr. Supt. Wainwright Taup told Manila Shimbun in a phone interview.

Taup said Roda was talking to a teacher of his school, identified as Omar Taup, inside the convent located at the Notre Dame campus when some 10 armed men, who were wearing bonnets, arrived at around 9pm.

The suspects allegedly dragged Roda outside of the convent, but the priest was resisting.

Because of this, the suspects allegedly shot Roda using a long firearm until he died.

Taup said members of the South Ubian Municipal Police Station were already on their way to the convent to respond to the incident when they heard the sound of gunfire that allegedly killed Roda.

Witnesses told police that they saw the suspects take the teacher instead as they escaped towards a waiting speedboat docked at the shore about a kilometer away.

Taup said when the responding policemen arrived at the convent, the suspects were no longer there. The same thing happened when they went to the shore to run after the suspects.

“Our policemen saw the dead body of Fr. Roda at the basketball court of the Notre Dame school. Based on the wounds, we can assume that the suspects got mad at him probably because he was fighting back,” Taup said in Filipino.

Taup joint police and military operatives, particularly from the Marines and Navy, have already conducted pursuit operations against the suspects.

He disclosed that the abducted teacher is his second cousin.

As of yesterday afternoon, Taup said he has no information yet where the suspects went after the incident.

Initial information reaching him indicated that the suspects came from Bongao in the mainland of Tawi-tawi prior to the incident. He said Tabawan is a separate islet in the province that can be reached by boat within three to four hours from Bongao, the capital town of the province.

Taup said that most probably, the motive for the abduction of Roda was just for ransom. He said there is no information reaching him that the priest was under threat or has personal disputes with local residents.

“He is well-loved here. He has been here for more than 10 years already,” Taup said of Roda.

He also ruled out that Roda could be a casualty of Christian-Moslem rivalry in the province, saying that Christians and Moslems there have a good relationship.

While Taup refused to say about the affiliation of the suspects, the military, for its part, was quick at implicating the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

“There had been previous kidnapping attempts on prominent personalities by the ASG in Tawi-tawi but was successfully foiled by the military and police operatives,” Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Eugene Batara said in a statement.

Taup disclosed that based on the dialect of the suspects, they assume that the latter are Moslems. “Witnesses heard them talk in Tausug and Samal vernacular,” he said.

National Police chief Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. told reporters yesterday at Camp Crame that he already directed the Directorate for Investigative and Detective Management (DIDM), and Regional Police director Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao to investigate the incident./DMS