Parish Priest Murdered

NORTHERN SAMAR, PHILIPPINES

In the morning of 6 September 2009, Father Cecilio Lucero of the Catubig parish was driving his car when some 30 masked men ambushed him in Barangay Layuhan in San Jose town. Few days earlier he told his older brother Wilmar, a former Congressman, that he had had an argument with the commander of an Army detachment in Catubig over alleged abused by soldiers.

One of Lucero's companions, Isidro Miras, was wounded. But his police escort remained unscathed.

The crime remained unsolved until more two years later, when Jerry Espera, a former soldier from Mondragon and tagged as one of the soldiers who ambushed Lucero returned to the province to apply for a bodyguard job to the mayor of Sta. Cruz. When the mayor had him background-checked, he learned of the standing warrant of arrest for Espera. [Source]

Boy Beaten to Death By "Parents"

CEBU, PHILIPPINES

John Mina just had his 17th birthday. But on 15 August 2011, his mother and her live-in partner connived to beat him so badly he died before reaching the hospital. It started her scolding her son for stubbornness. She even choked her for a few minutes from annoyance. Eventually it ended up the two of them beating the boy to death. Or was she the only one doing it? The signs of beatings in the boys body simply cannot support a woman's strength as the only inflictor of these. [Source]