STUDENTS helped by Father Fausto Tentorio promised to continue the work and pursue the ideals of the slain Italian missionary priest they called “Father Pops.”

The Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions priest was shot to death in his parish church grounds in Arakan, North Cotabato, on Oct. 17.

“Father’s death will not stop me from moving forward. It will not weaken me,” said Rey Rabadon, third year into his Bachelor of Science in Forestry studies at the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology.

He has been under Father Pops’ scholarship aid program since primary school. Two of his siblings were Father Pops’ scholars until they got married. One graduated high school while the other one finished only third year in secondary school.

He said Father Pops was like a father to them since their parents drowned in the river.

“Even if he’s (Tentorio) already gone, I promise to finish my education. He is my inspiration,” said Isabel Indao, a 14-year-old indigenous Manobo from Kitaotao, Bukidnon.

Indao under the scholarship gets financial assistance and rice subsidy. Everything she needed in school, including notebooks and uniforms, school fees and requirements were funded by Father Pops’ educational programs and scholarships.

She said she wants to be a teacher “so that I can help men and women gain knowledge,” she said. Her mother is a teacher in one of the 80 daycare centers Father Pops headed.

“Father Pops wanted to see everybody have a decent life. He wanted every family to eat three times a day,” Indao said.

Hanimay Suazo, secretary general of the Karapatan Human Rights Group for southern Mindanao, said the late priest also set up and found funding for children’s day-care centers in Arakan and organized the Tri-Farmers Program for Community Development, which trained lumand, or indigenous people, about their rights under the law, how to speak and negotiate with authorities, and methods of sustainable agriculture.

Fr Tentorio also promoted the Genuine Agrarian Reform bill, or House Bill 374, as well as campaigns against large-scale mining operations around Arakan.

Danny Gumanao of the Davao-based Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc,  described Fr Tentorio as a provider of “what the farmers and lumads needed.”

“He gave them animals for their livelihood, from ducks, chickens and goats to pigs, cattle and horses. He gave them feed for the animals, food for their families and bamboo, wood, nails and galvanized iron for their houses,” Gumanao said.

“Father Pops told us, Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for the people. What about us humans? Can’t we sacrifice our lives for our fellowmen and women, too?” Indao  recalls him saying.

“Now, with his death, I can tell that Father Pops’ words were true because he sacrificed his life not only for the youth but for the people,” he said.

“I want to seek justice for Father Pops,” she said adding the killer “also killed the future of his scholars.”

Indao said her heart broke when she learned that he had been murdered. “I can’t accept what happened to him. Our (the scholars) hearts bleed for Father Pops,” she said.

Father Pops may be an Italian but his heart was undoubtedly Filipino. “He was so kind and giving. He felt for every poor family like mine. He was the kindest person we’ve ever encountered,” she said.

More on this story in Interaksyon and ucanews.com