Centuries-old church bell stolen in Tuguegarao

TUGUEGARAO CITY – A centuries-old bronze bell was stolen from a church in northern Cagayan province on Monday night.

Cagayan police director Senior Superintendent Jude Santos said the unidentified robbers took the priceless religious item after breaking into Saint Anne’s Church in Buguey town.

“Only footprints were left by the robbers,” he said.

The bronze bell was being displayed as a religious and historical item next to the wishing well on the right side of the church, said Chief Inspector Juson Sumibcay, Buguey police chief.

This is not the first time that a priceless church bell has been stolen in the country’s northernmost province, Cagayan, the original seat of the old Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia, which covered the whole Northern Luzon.

In November 2005, thieves climbed the tower of the Catholic church in Nassiping, Gattaran town and stole the 279-year-old bell.

Bearing the markings “Santa Maria Ora Pronobis Nassiping Año 1726,” the bell was installed in the belfry of the Church of San Miguel Archangel in 1726.