Grudge may be motive for Philippine priest's death, parishioner says

Published: 2007-08-29

PINILI, Philippines (CNS) -- A parish priest shot dead with an assault rifle in the northern Philippines may have been killed over a "personal grudge" or during a robbery, a parishioner said. Parishioner Elisea Macalma told the Asian church news agency UCA News that on Aug. 28, after Father Florante Rigonan had left her family's house in Puritac, a village of Pinili town in Ilocos Norte province, she heard gunshots and called the police. Local police found the body of the 47-year-old priest lying on a road in the village. The pastor of St. Isidore Parish in Pinili was a family friend of the Macalma family. He had just celebrated an evening Mass at their house commemorating one month since the death of a relative. Provincial police investigator George Santos told reporters "unidentified gunmen" shot the priest while he walked to his van to return to his parish. He said the priest, whose body bore gunshot wounds in the head and elsewhere, died on the spot. Investigators recovered nine spent shells at the scene of the crime near Macalma's home.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .