Man nabbed for stealing church bell

A church bell believed to be over a hundred years old was stolen by at least four suspects from an abandoned chapel in Valenzuela City and sold for scrap at a measly P2,500 to a junk shop nearby, authorities reported yesterday.

The bell, made of pure copper and likely to fetch a very high price in the antiques market, could now be in the hands of a collector.

Senior Inspector Salvador de la Cruz Jr. said the robbery was pulled way back in August but was discovered only last Wednesday by the chapel caretaker.

SPO1 Loreto de la Cruz, the investigator-on-case, said they collared suspect Jhonadyl Begelia, 20, of Malinta, Valenzuela City, who squealed on his companions identified as Bernard Morelos, an alias "Nonoy" and an alias "Nognog" — all at large. Nognog was the alleged driver of the get-away tricycle the group used in the robbery. The bell was placed in a sack and sold to a nearby junk shop.

Benito Delima, 69, caretaker of the San Isidro Labrador chapel, located along Gov. Ignacio Santiago street in Barangay Malinta, described the bell as measuring some 20 inches across the lip (diameter) and weighed some 30 kilos. He said the bell was already there when he transferred residence from Canumay when Valenzuela was then part of Bulacan in the late 1950s.

Delima told The STAR that the bell was housed in a three-meter high belfry that was hidden from public view by a big cross in front of it.

He said the chapel had been closed for the last six months because of dwindling worshippers. Most churchgoers, he said, preferred to go to the newer and bigger church of the same name in Barangay Balubaran along Macarthur Highway. The parish priest, Fr. Rufino Sulit, is on vacation and would be back within the week, Delima said.

In a statement to police investigators, Delima said an informant phoned him on Wednesday and asked him to see if the church bell was still in the belfry. "It might already be missing," he was told. Alarmed, Delima rushed to the chapel and found the bell gone.

Hours after Delima had reported the theft, police officer Julio de Mesa and his men collared Begelia. The suspect told investigators they sold the bell for P2,500 at a junk shop in nearby Barangay Dalandanan, owned by a Winnie Abanto.

Abanto denied buying any bell from the suspect, however. A police witness, whose name was withheld, said he was positive it was Morelos who sold the bell to the junk dealer.

Police are readying charges against the suspects.