Church loses antique statue to con man

MANILA, Philippines - An antique wooden Marian image is missing after a man allegedly duped a worker at the Sta. Teresita Parish church in Quezon City into believing that he was there to pick up the statue for modification.

The incident that resulted in the loss of the image of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help happened about two weeks ago, said Fr. Rally Gonzaga, parish priest of Sta. Teresita Parish.

According to Gonzaga, he was not there when a man named Omar Sarino approached a worker to get the image. “He told the staff that he had gotten my permission since he would be placing glass on its frame,” Gonzaga said in an interview.

The antique image was kept in the sacristy of the adoration chapel and is only brought out and displayed on Wednesday mornings during Mass.

Gonzaga said he only found out recently when a worker asked him if the image had been returned. He said workers told him the man who took the image occasionally attended Mass in the church.

He said he reported the loss only to village officials, not yet to the police. He said he told parishioners about the missing image when the church observed the Our Lady of Perpetual Help’s feastday.

Superintendent Lino Banaag, commander of the Quezon City Police District Station 1, said since the image was taken out technically with the knowledge of the staff, it could not be considered theft, but estafa.

The image stands at under one meter, with a “gothic style” frame. It had been there even before the church was built. The wooden image has darkened through the years, according to Gonzaga.

The priest hopes the man who swindled the church staff would return the image. He warned that the child of a merchant who stole the original image from a church in Rome centuries ago developed a serious illness, and was only healed when the merchant returned the image.