Folks denounce priests for desecrating church

CAPAS, Tarlac -- Folks in Barangay Patling in this town Tarlac denounced recently the action taken by the Catholic Church against the more than 300 years old "balon" or well located inside the premises of the St. Joseph Parish Church -- believed to be one of the oldest Catholic churches in the Philippines -- which was used as a dumping area of trash.

A small chapel was built in front of the well, which hides it. The priest assigned there also ordered it closed to the viewing public.

"They put more importance to the construction of the building than the importance of the historical value of the well," churchgoers said. They added that the present parish priest, whom they did not name, challenged them: "Kahit saan kayo magsumbong na media o television ay hindi ako natatakot." The priest allegedly said, "He is not afraid because the church belongs to catholic priests."

The faithful gathered signatures from the residents of the village to save their heritage church from what said are "abusive priests." So far, they have collected more than 500 signatures to save the well.

"Pumunta pa kami kay Bishop Cinense (Florentino) para sana ipatigil ang pagwasak sa balon subalit ang sagot niya sa amin ay 'Wala akong time. Busy ako. Pupunta lang ako doon sa Marso para basbasan ang chapel, ang sabi po niya, the residents said.

They said their mouths were shut when many things happened in their barangay. However, they said that this time, they feel that they have to make their stand and tell the world what is really going on.

They said that when Fr. Jose Daquigan (deceased) and Fr. Tirso Daquigan (now a Monsignor) were assigned here as parish priests, they desecrated the St. Joseph Parish Church altar. They said they dug the altar where some Spanish friars are buried with treasures.

A certain teenager named "Pugot" who served as a choir guitarist that time saw the digging and remembers that one of the Spanish friars buried below the altar is one "Fr. Atienza", together with two more friars. He said he saw black diaries and notebooks taken out from a tomb below the catacomb with the name "Atienza" in it, which dates back in 1773.

He said there was also a gold chalice recovered from the tomb and other important personal effects of the friars. He said the digging was personally supervised by Fr. Daquigan, allegedly a known friend of Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. He said the digging of the church altar was done in the early '80s. Then sometime in the late 1980s, uniformed soldiers were seen coming in out of the old barrio cemetery of Patling. A chopper was also seen coming down near the area and after a few hours, was seen flying away from the place.

The Patling residents said they were afraid to go near the cemetery when they saw the uniformed soldiers with armalite rifles and heavy armaments. The following day, they said, they investigated the cemetery and saw that the old tomb of the Spanish Friars dating back 1759 was ransacked. The bones of the dead were nowhere to be found. A big hole was dug beneath the compartment type tomb. The folks surmised that a Spanish treasure must have been found inside the tombs.

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Folks denounce priests for desecrating church