Colleague says slain bishop a marked man By Tonette Orejas Inquirer Last updated 04:43am (Mla time) 10/05/2006 Published on page A2 of the October 5, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer TARLAC CITY -- Eleven months before he was stabbed dead on Tuesday, Aglipayan Bishop Alberto Ramento said he had confirmed with his contacts in the military that his name had been listed in the military order of battle, according to a fellow Aglipayan church official. Fr. Eleuterio Revollido, who chairs the Council of Priests of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (the Philippine Independent Church), said that Ramento was able to get the confirmation in November 2005 just as the labor conflict between two unions and the management of Hacienda Luisita, which he helped mediate, was about to be resolved. One of those who confirmed Ramento’s inclusion in the military order of battle was an Army officer who had ties with the IFI and was concerned over the bishop’s safety, Revollido said. Ramento, 69, chair of the Supreme Council of Bishops of the IFI, also known as the Aglipayan Church, was stabbed dead early on Tuesday at his convent in Tarlac province. Revollido said Ramento’s death may be the signal of the start of attacks on high-profile human rights defenders. He said the IFI council was “not discounting” the possibility that it was a case of political killing. “He issued strong statements against President (Gloria) Macapagal-Arroyo and her administration’s policies. He was outspoken. He spoke out against the extra-judicial executions and Charter change. He supported the impeachment complaint [against the President],” Revollido said. Lieutenant General Bonifacio Ramos, chief of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command, protested that allegations of a military link in the killing was a “plain lie.” “The leftists are trying to connect the killing to the military. We’re being made a convenient excuse,” Ramos said in a mobile phone interview. He said Ramento was “not on the OB.” The military order of battle is a confidential list of names of suspects targeted for arrest. Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon denied Ramento was in the military’s order of battle, saying no religious leader was on the list. Those on the list are not necessarily marked for death, according to a high military official who asked not to be named. Known leftists operating legally and above-ground are not included in the order of battle, the official said. The Philippine National Police is focusing its investigation into the Ramento slaying as a case of robbery, not a political killing. In a statement, the PNP’s Task Force Usig, formed last May to investigate the killing of militants and journalists, said Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome, the Tarlac provincial police director, had already reported on his investigation and that evidence found at the crime scene pointed to robbery as the likely motive. Archimedes Ferrer, the bishop’s aide, confirmed the two break-ins at the church in an affidavit. He also told investigators that at about 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 2, a man on a motorcycle was seen near the church compound. Ramento had talked openly about his being on the OB. “I’m on the OB and if anything bad happens to me, you have an idea of who wanted me killed,” Jocelyn Javier, chair of the Mothers and Relatives against Tyranny, recalled the bishop as saying at the launch of “Hustisya,” an organization of human rights advocates and relatives of victims, on Sept. 15 at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. The bishop also alerted his family about his being in the OB and about receiving threats because of his activist work. “He told his wife and children that his life was in danger. He gave them instructions that he wanted to be cremated,” Revollido said. Bayan Muna party-list Representative Satur Ocampo said Ramento’s murder “may be an offshoot of his positions on a variety of issues from the Hacienda Luisita strike he supported, his opposition to Charter change, his condemnation of political slays and his role in the peace negotiations [with communist insurgents].” Ocampo, who with other legislators and militant leaders went to the wake of the murdered bishop in Tarlac, said the initial findings of robbery as the motive may not be true at all. With reports from Alcuin Papa and Michael Lim Ubac in Manila and Jo Martinez-Clemente, Inquirer Central Luzon Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.