Vandals desecrate Benguet shrine

TUBA, Benguet — Vandals barged into the Shrine of the Brown Virgin Mary here Monday morning, destroying an image of St. John the Carpenter.

The vandals, according to veteran newsman and former Baguio City councilor Narciso Padilla, apparently kicked the image of St. John, causing its head, bearing a bronze-plated crown, to be detached from the body.

The shrine is found in a cave said to have been carved by Britons for a railway system before World War II.

A group of mediamen conceptualized the Brown Virgin Mary with the help of former President Fidel Ramos immediately after the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

Since then, Marian devotees have been flocking to the shrine in Barangay Tadiawan here, about a 15-minute ride from Baguio City. — Artemio Dumlao