Italian priest shot dead in Philippines

A Italian Catholic priest was shot dead inside his church compound in the troubled southern Philippines on Monday, police said. An unknown gunman shot Fausto Tentorio in the remote farming town of Arakan on Mindanao island, police said. A "suspect suddenly appeared and without provocation shot the victim hitting his body", regional police spokesman Resty Damaso said in a report released to the media. Tentorio was taken to a hospital "but was declared dead by the attending physician", according to the report. Local police told reporters that the gunman had escaped and the motive for the attack was not yet known. Local social welfare officer Jessica Gokotano, who knew Tentorio, said he had long served as the parish priest in the area and was not known to have enemies. "He was a kind person and everybody liked him," Gokotano told AFP. "We were informed by police that he has died and it saddens us." She said he was aged in his 60s. Gokotano and police said he was Italian, although few other details about him were immediately available. Various armed groups are known to operate near the area, including Muslim separatist rebels waging a decades-old insurgency and former guerrillas who have branched out into crime, including kidnappings and robbery. Muslim rebels have in the past kidnapped Catholic priests in other parts of Mindanao, which makes up the southern third of Philippines.