The Minister of Justice stated that the person responsible for the killing of the priest, a man from Arakan, and his brother, were arrested after a firefight.
The alleged murderer of the Italian missionary was arrested by the Philippine authorities in Mindanao, according to a statement today by the Minister of Justice Leila de Lima.
Fr. Tentorio was killed in October.
AsiaNews missionary news agency reports that in a message delivered to journalists, the minister affirms that a man, Jimmy Ato, has been arrested by agents of the regional office of the National Bureau of Investigation.
De Lima said that Jimmy's brother, Robert, opened fire on the agents involved in the suspect's arrest. "Fortunately, nobody was injured. The officers immediately immobilized the subject to avoid any further acts of resistance." It is unclear when the arrest was made
Fr. Fausto Tentorio was murdered by a lone killer inside the rectory of Mother of Perpetual Help parish in Arakan, northern Cotabato, in Mindanao on October 17 of this year. He is the third PIME priest killed in the Philippines. The two priests killed before him were Fr. Tullio Favali and Fr. Salvatore Carzedda, killed in 1985 and 1992.
Jimmy Ato was accused of being Fr. Tentorio's killer by some witnesses who were present at the scene of the crime.
The same witnesses reported that his brother, Robert, drove the motorcycle on which the killer allegedly fled immediately after the crime.
Jimmy Ato was detained under an arrest warrant, from sector 13 of the judicial court, for murder and resisting arrest.
Meanwhile, members of the 57th battalion have been deployed throughout the area, and numerous check points have been erected "to avoid any possible retaliation against the witnesses' local families."