Cotabato cops hold priest over cargo of dead Christ

COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao del Norte, Philippines — A Catholic priest transporting an image of the dead Christ (Santo Entierro) from Digos City in Davao del Sur on Monday was held at a checkpoint in Kidapawan City after policemen were alarmed at seeing what they thought was a “salvage” (extrajudicial killing) victim inside his car.

Fr. Jonel Peroy of President Roxas town in Cotabato province said he picked up the life-size Santo Entierro that his parish bought in Digos City, Davao del Sur, for the Church’s Lenten activity. He was driving back home when he was held by policemen as he was approaching Kidapawan City, the provincial capital of Cotabato, on Monday morning.

“That looks like a dead person you have inside your car,” said the policeman whom he did not identify. “We ask you to alight.”

The priest was perspiring when he tried to explain to the policemen that what they saw was only a plaster sculpture of the dead Christ. The lawmen, however, would have none of it and insisted on checking as they were doing a plain view inspection.

As he stepped out of his vehicle, the priest had a quick glance at his cargo through the car window and agreed that it really looked like a man wrapped in plastic.

“They asked me to [alight] to take a close look at what I had inside my car. They really suspected that something [was off] because of how my cargo [appeared]; it really looked like a dead man, wrapped in plastic. Of course, it was the dead Christ. I was really perspiring,” the priest narrated on his Facebook page.

“I unwrapped the Santo Entierro and told them that I’m a priest so that they would stop asking so many questions,” he said.

Good laugh

It was only then that the policemen realized that it was, indeed, the dead Christ.

When they saw the image, the policemen had a good laugh and apologized to the priest. “We’re really sorry, Father, we thought you just salvaged a man,” one of them said.

“Sir, just to tell you, I did not salvage Christ,” the priest replied in jest.

During the Holy Week, Catholic Churches display the Santo Entierro after the observance of the Seven Last Words at 3 p.m. on Good Friday, when Jesus Christ was said to have died on the cross.

Peroy said he admired the policemen for being vigilant and for doing their job but described the experience and the inconvenience it brought as “exhausting.”

He said he was also bothered by something that he could not accept.

“Do I look like a criminal?” he asked.

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