Priest safe after armed men attack convent

A CATHOLIC priest on Saturday escaped unhurt after armed men strafed a parish house in Casiguran, Aurora.

Fr. Jose Francisco Talaban, 43, parish priest of Nuestra Señora de la Salvacion in Barangay Bianoan, Casiguran, said he was sleeping when the group fired at the parish house at about 2:20 a.m. He said he was about two meters away from where the bullets left marks.

Investigators recovered an empty shell from an M-16 rifle, three empty shells from an M-14 rifle and shrapnel from a grenade, said Senior Supt. Romulo Esteban, Aurora police chief.

Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona, head of the Prelature of Infanta that covers Aurora, condemned the attack and said it would not frighten the Catholic Church in defending the rights of the poor and exposing irregularities in that province.

“Father Joefran is a good shepherd and pastor. He acted on the cries for help of oppressed people in his parish. This violence is unacceptable,” Tirona said.

A resident saw a van near the area during the incident, Talaban said. The van had no license plate and its windows were tinted, he said.

The suspects left plastic laminated pamphlets warning Talaban to pack and leave because of the disunity he was supposedly sowing in Casiguran. The pamphlets were supposedly issued by the “Aniban ng Ayaw sa Komunista [Alliance Against Communists],” an anticommunist group.

“The allegations against Father Joefran are all lies and made by people who are panicking because the truth of their foolishness and deception on poor people are being revealed to all,” Tirona said in a statement.

“The Church cannot be stopped from taking side with the oppressed and those being robbed of their land,” he added. “Justice and punishment of the Lord [will come] and the Lord is not blind to what has happened.”

Tirona said he suspected that the incident was related to Talaban’s assistance to groups opposing the establishment of an economic zone in the province.

Report from Inquirer.Net