A priest was shot dead while officiating mass inside a chapel in Zaragosa, Nueva Ecija on Sunday afternoon, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said. The CBCP identified the victim as Fr. Richmond Nilo of the Cabanatuan diocese. BREAKING: Another priest, Fr, Richmond Nilo of the Cabanatuan diocese, was shot dead by unidentified persons while celebrating Mass around 5pm Sunday inside a chapel in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija. #cbcpnews — CBCPNews (@cbcpnews) June 10, 2018 According to a report by Super Radyo dzBB's Manny Vargas, Central Luzon Police regional director Chief Superintendent Amador Corpus said that Nilo was shot from the window by two gunmen. The killers are still unidentified, the CBCP said. — Anna Felicia Bajo/BM, GMA News<doc-sep>ZARAGOZA, Nueva Ecija — Isabelita Paraton was seated in the third row at Nuestra Señora de la Nieve Chapel, a few meters from the altar, when Fr. Richmond Nilo stepped out to start the 6 p.m. Mass on Sunday at Barangay Mayamot here. Around 50 parishioners waited for the 44-year-old priest while he fixed his garments. ADVERTISEMENT Then chaos erupted as shots rang out. The churchgoers found Nilo’s bloodied body lying on the floor, near a tarpaulin sign bearing the lyrics of the Mass hymn “Papuri sa Diyos” (Glory to God). “Father Nilo walked to the altar and was just standing there when shots were fired. We did not see who fired a gun because we all dropped to our knees in fright,” said Paraton, Mayamot village chair. Then she heard people wailing, “Si Father, si Father binaril” (Father Nilo had been shot)” she said. The attack shocked residents who said Nilo, parish priest of St. Vincent Ferrer Church, had never been controversial like Fr. Mark Ventura and Fr. Marcelito Paez, both activists. Ventura, 37, was murdered after celebrating Mass in Gattaran town, Cagayan province, on April 29. Paez, 72, was killed in an ambush on Dec. 5, 2017, in Jaen town, Nueva Ecija province. Nilo was president of the College of the Immaculate Conception in Cabanatuan City before he was given the Zaragoza assignment. He also served as financial administrator of the Diocese of Cabanatuan. Culture of impunity The diocese condemned the murder and the “escalating violence and culture of impunity in the country, even against helpless clergymen.” ADVERTISEMENT “No priest, and no human being for that matter, deserves to be killed with utter brutality, disrespect and impunity,” Cabanatuan Bishop Sofronio Bancud said in a statement. “Priests, however imperfect, are God’s gifts to His Church and we are duty-bound to respect them as ambassadors for Christ,” Bancud said. “To kill a priest then for whatever motive or cause is not only unchristian and inhuman; it is also un-Filipino,” he added. In Malacañang, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the culture of impunity had become a problem even before President Duterte came to power. Asked whether President Rodrigo Duterte’s criticisms of the Church could have encouraged some people to kill priests, Roque said there was no “empirical basis” for this. Top priority He said the administration would give top priority to the investigation of Nilo’s death. “[I]f you kill a priest, you are not only violating the right to life but the right to practice one’s faith,” Roque said at a press briefing on Monday. Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde said the Central Luzon regional police office had activated a special task group to look into the killing. Albayalde maintained that the attacks on the three priests should be treated as isolated incidents. “But this is the first time that I encountered someone shot at the altar. We cannot understand why,” he said, referring to Nilo. CBCP terribly disturbed The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) also expressed alarm over the spate of killings of priests. “We are deeply saddened and terribly disturbed that another priest was brutally killed . . . We strongly condemn this outrageously evil act,” said the CBCP president, Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles. Valles appealed to the police to find Nilo’s killers. Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco said the killing of priests in the country would not stop the Church from speaking the truth and proclaiming the Gospel. “St. Paul was behind bars and was chained but continued his proclamation of the good news,” Ongtioco said. Witnesses said the gunmen might have shot Nilo through the grilled chapel window. Playful, cheerful Paraton described the priest as “kind, playful and cheerful.” He had been helping people by donating vegetable seeds and farm animals, said Nacita Tagasa, 60, leader of the Barangay Pastoral Council at neighboring Barangay Macarse. Chief Supt. Amador Corpus, Central Luzon police director who examined the crime scene on Sunday night, could not say if priests were being targeted, given that Nilo did not appear to have any political leanings. The administration drew flak from priests and netizens recently when the President linked Ventura’s death to an illicit affair during a talk in Cebu province. Ventura killing suspect A suspected hit man, Arthymus Reynon, was charged with killing Ventura, Albayalde said at a command conference in Tuguegarao City last week. Reynon, who had been implicated in the 2014 murder of a village councilman, was caught hiding in Baggao town, Cagayan, shortly after Ventura’s murder. Police, however, have yet to arrest those who hired Reynon to kill the priest. Opposition members of the House of Representatives have condemned the murder of Nilo. In a statement, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said “the country’s state of impunity has gone berserk.” —WITH REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS, CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND VINCE F. NONATO IN MANILA Read Next<doc-sep>A militant lawmaker said the “country’s state of impunity has gone berserk” following the killing of Fr. Richmond Nilo of the Diocese of Cabanatuan by still unidentified gunmen in the Nuestra Señora de la Nieve Chapel in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija on Sunday. The 40-year-old parish priest of Zaragoza was behind the altar getting ready to start Mass at around 6:05 p.m. when two unidentified men shot him through a window four times. ADVERTISEMENT READ: Priest shot dead in chapel at start of Mass in Nueva Ecija “These ruthless assassins have gone berserk, sparing no one, not even churchpeople. This state of impunity is now really wrecking havoc in our communities,” Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said in a statement on Monday. Nilo is the third priest to be murdered in six months after the April 29 attack against 37-year-old Fr. Mark Ventura in Cagayan; and the December 5, 2017 ambush of 72-year-old Fr. Marcelito Paez at Jaen town also in Nueva Ecija. READ: Ecija priest’s murder sparks solidarity against ‘tokhang’ vs activists Zarate believes that Paez, a known peace advocate and is pushing for the resumption of the peace talks, and Ventura, an anti-mining activist, were “killed for openly acting on their convictions.” “Impunity spares no one now, where among the targets include activists, mass leaders, journalists and church-people,” the opposition lawmaker said. Zarate cited data from human rights group Karapatan, which documented 126 cases of extrajudicial killings from July 2016 to December 31, 2017 alone, with victims coming from the ranks of peasants, indigenous peoples, Moro, workers, women, and youth. Karapatan also said some 20,322 persons, including minors, were killed in the government’s brutal anti-drug campaign. /kga Read Next<doc-sep>
Published: 10:08 p.m., June 10, 2018 | Updated: 12:42 a.m., June 11, 2018 Fr. Richmond Nilo of the Diocese of Cabanatuan was shot to death by unidentified gunmen on Sunday in the Nuestra Señora de la Nieve Chapel in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija, according to a spot report from the Nueva Ecija Provincial Police Provincial Office. ADVERTISEMENT Nilo, 40-year-old parish priest of Zaragoza, was behind the altar getting ready to start Mass at around 6:05 p.m. when two unidentified men shot him through a window four times. A Twittter post by CBCP News, the news service of the Media Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, broke the news via Twitter. “We condemn the attack on Father Nilo as we Christians condemn all killings and violence and all forms of impunity,” said Fr. Jetts Jetanove, vicar general of the Diocese of Cabanatuan. Nilo is the third priest to be murdered following the April 29 attack on 37-year-old Fr. Mark Ventura and the Dec. 5, 2017 ambush of 72-year-old Fr. Marcelito Paez at Jaen town in Nueva Ecija province. Ventura was killed by a gunman at a gymnasium after he concluded Mass in Gattaran town at Cagayan province. He was a known anti-mining activist. The government recently drew flak from priests and over social media when President Duterte nonchalantly linked his death to an illicit affair during a talk he gave in Cebu. Paez, a retired priest, was attacked as he drove through Jaen after dropping off a political detainee and his family shortly after he was released. Paez had been a political activist since the martial law years under then President Ferdinand Marcos. /atm Read Next