Dying for the Gospel in Mindanao

 Domingo Edo, a young Filipino Catholic layman, was killed on 20 August as he went to a remote village near the mining town of Tampakan, in Mindanao Island, to carry out the work of evangelization entrusted to him by the diocese. His companion, Ramil Piang, an 18-year-old cleric, was injured during the attack by unidentified armed men but managed to escape.

Father Ariel Destura, the diocese's social action head, said to Ucanews that Domingo Edo, a worker for Marbel Diocese's Social Action Center, “was well-loved in the mountains and had no known enemies.” The diocese had delegated Domingo to evangelize remote villages in the mining area in South Cotabato.

His assassination is probably linked to the advocacy work that Domingo Edo was doing on behalf of the local church to defend the area’s population against the effects of a copper and gold mine that spans three of the island’s provinces, although—Fr. Destura added- “had been handling the diocese's anti-mining advocacy using dialogue, and was not known to agitate tribal members against the mining company.”