Basilan under state of mourning over Furigay killing

BASILAN, Philippines – Flags have flown at half mast at the Basilan provincial capitol and the Lamitan city hall since Monday as Basileños continued to grieve over the July 24 killing of former mayor Rosita Furigay and two others at the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) in Quezon City.

Basilan Governor Jim Hataman Salliman declared a provincewide state of mourning on Tuesday, July 26, two days after the shooting deaths.

The official declaration, according to Salliman, was to “fittingly demonstrate the province’s deep sorrows” on the passing of Furigay who served as Lamitan City’s mayor for nine years until her husband Roderick succeeded her on June 30.

Police said the 58-year-old Furigay was shot dead while she was supposed to see her daughter Hannah Rose receive her diploma from the Ateneo Law School during a graduation ceremony that was scheduled at 4 pm that day.

Hannah was wounded while the ex-mayor’s executive assistant Victor George Capistrano and Ateneo security guard Jeneven Bandiala were killed in the gun attack blamed on Lamitan-based physician Chao Tiao Yumol.

Furigay’s remains lie in state at a chapel in Quezon City as of this posting, but will be brought to Basilan where she will be given posthumous honors and laid to rest.

Furigay was tentatively scheduled to be flown to Basilan on Friday, July 29. Her family has yet to announce the interment date.

The Furigay family continued to be overwhelmed by an outpouring of sympathy from the public, especially from Basileños who were still trying to make sense of the bloody Sunday gun attack in Quezon City.

In different parts of Lamitan City, civil and other groups have been taking turns in leading daily novena prayers for the well-loved Furigay and other victims.

The shooting deaths prompted the Roman Catholic Prelature of Isabela de Basilan to release an official statement to decry the gun attack.

“We, at the Prelature of Isabela de Basilan, find this violent attack disturbing and deplorable. Violence does not have a place in our Christian life and society as a whole. We uphold the rule of law…. We call for the swift and just resolution of this case,” read part of the statement signed by Bishop Leo Dalmao.

Dalmao said the killing of Furigay, Capistrano, and Bandiala came as “distressing news” for many Basileños who knew the ex-mayor.

He said Furigay was an active partner of the Catholic prelature in peace-building efforts and interreligious undertakings in Basilan.

“We are pained by the loss of a fellow peace advocate,” Bishop Dalmao said.

The suspect, who was arrested shortly after the shootings, harbored a grudge against Furigay and her husband that was traced back to 2019, when the then-mayor had Yumol’s Lamitan-based People’s Clinic closed down for operating without a license from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Yumol turned into a staunch critic of the couple after that, going to the extent of accusing the couple of corruption and having links to the local drug trade.

The allegations, which the Furigays denied, resulted in a string of cyber libel charges against Yumol. The doctor had been out on bail until his arrest on Sunday, and the police pressed murder charges against him this week. – Rappler.com