DARAGA, Albay---The widow of the slain pastor Isaias Sta. Rosa urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to call for a speedy solution of his killing amid growing evidence pointing to soldiers as the suspects.

        The pastor of the United Methodist Church was killed on Aug. 3 by hooded gunmen beside a creek near their house in barangay Malobago of this town. He was laid to rest on Wednesday.

        Sonia Sta. Rosa identified Cpl. Lerdger Pastrana of the Philippine Army, the other dead man found by a creek beside her husband, as the one who was barking orders to the group of hooded gunmen last Thursday night.

        “I believe my husband, who knew self-defense, was able to fight back and grabbed Pastrana’s gun and was able to shoot him before he was killed,” Sonia said.

        She said her husband’s wristwatch and daughter’s cell phone were found inside the pocket of Pastrana together with an order of battle on Isaias dated July 22, 2006.

        Brig. Gen. Arsenio Arugay, 901st Infantry Brigade commander based in Villahermosa here, advised the slain pastor’s wife to file charges with the proper agency.

        “It is just an allegation and the dead soldier cannot defend himself anymore. Anyway, the administrative office of the 9th Infantry Division is already undertaking an investigation of the case and let’s just wait for the result, Arugay said.

        The 901st IB is under the 9th ID based in Pili, Camarines Sur in which Pastrana was assigned.

        Sonia said she feared for her safety because suspicious-looking persons were seen near her home since the wake last Friday.

        She said a man visited her on Sunday, introduced himself as a friend of the slain pastor and tried to force her say if she was able to identify Pastrana as one of the hooded armed men.

        Sonia said she told the man, whom she believed was a soldier, that she knew all her husband’s friends and she asked him how he came to be associated with her husband.

        She said the man, who did not give his name, left after she refused to talk to him.

        Sonia said the military had been sowing disinformation by saying that Pastrana was a suitor of her daughter.

        She said she easily identified Pastrana because he was the only one among the hooded armed men who was short and stout. The others were lanky and tall.

        Sonia said the men who ransacked her house and abducted and killed her husband were not able to retrieve Pastrana’s body because the villagers quickly went to the place where the shooting took place.

        She said that upon hearing the gunfire she rushed to her sister’s house where the latter’s husband came and drove a tricycle around the village shouting that his brother-in-law had been abducted.

        Sonia said the villagers responded and immediately went to the place where the bodies of her husband and Pastrana were found.

        Isaias had been a project staff member of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bicol, an affiliate of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, since 1984.