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By Tonette Orejas Central Luzon Desk First Posted 15:31:00 01/16/2009
BACOLOR, Pampanga -- It took only a few days to recover a 19th century image of St. John the Apostle that was stolen last week from one of the country's 20 national cultural treasures. Text messages, e-mails, and mobile phone calls, plus loads of Catholic faith, saved the day for church heritage conservation.
The search for the image ended on Thursday night in this town that was ravaged by the Mt. Pinatubo eruptions in 1991. Bacolor is 215 kilometers away from Tayabas. The buyer, ecclesiastical art restorer Tom Joven, found tell-tale signs of theft, secured the image and said he was donating it to the basilica. The taklang ayup (bird droppings) spattered on the image gave away the crime, Joven said. Made of wood and three feet tall, the image is a detalyado or carved in the round. The search, it turned out, started on cyberspace.
The YahooGroup of the Heritage Conservation Society became an important communication line, said Ivan Henares, HCS director and administrator of the group's site.
"We have received a lot of SOS calls from various locations in the country. Common are requests for help to stop the demolition of heritage structures or tasteless renovations on heritage churches, among many others," Henares said. Ryan Palad, a native of Tayabas and curator of the GSIS Museum in Pasay City, first posted the call for help, including an attachment of a photo of the image, on Jan. 15.
"We would like to seek your help to retrieve the stolen image of St. John the Evangelist (wood, height 3 ft) from the Basilica de San Miguel Archangel, Tayabas,Quezon," said Palad. Palad also sent text messages to friends and colleagues who passed the information around.
Palad's contact, Prof. Lino Dizon of the Tarlac State University, passed the message to HSC member Alex Castro. Emelita Almosara, deputy director of the National Historical Institute, also launched a search, communicating with Palad by text messages and cell phone calls.
Castro launched his own search not long after he replied to the group's YahooGroup. "I was alerted by a friend about this stolen piece—San Juan Evangelista, a 3-foot image. Someone was peddling a San Juan the week before—of the same size! I was rather suspicious—until the identity of the image was corrected—San Ramon Nonato daw. So I didn't pursue my probing of the middleman who informed me of this image for sale. So, which is which?" Castro's posting went.
Palad heeded Castro's request for a picture. The theft also became an opportunity for Palad to correct what had long been wrong all along. The image all along was that of San Juan Evangelista, not of San Ramon Nonato.
Coincidence or not, Joven texted Castro on Thursday to say he bought a San Juan Evangelista on Jan. 9, on the Feast of the Nazarene, and felt something suspicious about it. He e-mailed Castro a photograph. The photographs from Palad and Joven matched.
"Alex informed me that after comparing pictures from Ryan and the one who purchased it, I think we found the image, thanks to the HCS network. Sharing of information here has proved to come out with quick result," Henares announced on the site. Angel Bautista of the National Museum of the Philippines, who was in the communication loop, learned of the recovery.
"Tayabas Basilica being a national cultural treasure, I think we should not let this pass and find out who stole the image and prosecute those who committed this travesty," Henares said.
Palad, surprised at the fast discovery, exclaimed in typical Tagalog fashion: "Maraming, maraming, maraming salamat po (Many, many thanks)!" Castro rued "there are still unscrupulous dealers out there who are out to make big bucks out of our church material heritage.
Joven, who restored the four-century old, half-buried San Guillermo (St. William The Hermit) Church in Bacolor, said he felt lucky that the image got to him and was given the opportunity to secure it.
"Serendipity" was what he felt all along about the image, he said. "I didn't want to buy it at first because I have a San Juan Evangelista already but I did because I felt like it was really going to me," he said.
Initially, he planned to include it in the Holy Week exhibit of the University of the Sto. Tomas Museum. When the image was delivered, Joven said he believed that the dealer, possibly a middleman, lied to him. The latter, doing business by text and e-mails, claimed that the image belonged to a family in Pagsanjan who was disposing of it because the brood was transferring to Makati City.
"I had a hunch something was wrong. If this belonged to a family, why did it have bird's feces all over it? I said it might have come from a church," he recalled.
His suspicion grew when UST's Fr. Didoy Abaño informed him that a San Juan Evangelista image was stolen in Tayabas. That's when he texted Castro.Asked why he agreed to return and donate it, he said: "That's the right and good thing to do for art restorers, collectors and Catholics like me. We should be part of the church heritage conservation effort."
Dr. Leticia Cordero-Yap, a native of Tayabas who worked in the Pampanga capital of San Fernando, will return the image to Msgr. Antonio Obena, the parish priest, on Saturdayv.
PHOTO B: The recovered San Juan image, found and sold in Pampanga. Secured by the buyer, it was turned over to a Tayabas resident today for its return to Tayabas.
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