By Freddie G. Lazaro and Martin A. Sadongdong Tuguegarao City, Cagayan — A 37-year-old priest who had just finished celebrating Holy Mass at the gymnasium in Barangay Piña Weste in Gattaran, this province, was killed in cold blood by two still unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen yesterday morning. Senior Superintendent Warren Gaspar Tolito, the Cagayan Police Provincial Office (PPO) director, confirmed the fatal attack at 8:15 a.m. on Rev. Fr. Mark Ventura, parish priest of the San Isidro Labrador Mission Station in Barangay Mabuno, Gattaran. Homicide investigators said Fr. Ventura was preparing for a baptism ceremony when the gunman approached him and, without a word, shot him twice in the body in front of a startled choir of singers. The priest, who is also rector at the Saint Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary in the Lyceum of Aparri, died on the spot. Witnesses who were approaching the priest for his blessing during the attack failed to give a facial description of the gunman because the assailant was wearing a helmet, said Tolito. As people ran in panic, the gunman went out of the gym and boarded a waiting motorcycle that sped off in the direction of Baggao town. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) condemned the killing as an evil act. “We condemn this evil act!” CBCP President and Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles said in a statement. “We are totally shocked and in utter disbelief to hear about the brutal killing of Fr. Mark Ventura,” he added. Valles appealed to the authorities “to act swiftly in going after the perpetrators of this crime and to bring them to justice.”

Anti-mining priest

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan also condemned the murder of the priest who is known for pushing for the rights of indigenous peoples and his advocacy against mining. “Partido Liberal condemns the senseless killing of Catholic priest, Fr. Mark Ventura,” Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party (LP), said in a statement “We call on the authorities to capture and prosecute Fr. Ventura’s killers as soon as possible and not treat Fr. Ventura’s death as just another death under investigation (DUI) wherein perpetrators are never held accountable, as in the case of Fr. Marcelito Paez, who was also killed by unidentified gunmen in Jaen, Nueva Ecija five months ago in December 2017,” he said. (With reports from Liezle Basa Iñigo, Leslie Ann G. Aquino, and Hannah L. Torregoza)