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Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Divers fish out ancient church bell in Talisay
By Garry Cabotaje
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Local divers found yesterday morning a church bell lying on the seabed of Lagundi reef, Talisay City’s protected marine sanctuary.
Councilor Shirley Belleza and officers of the Talisay City Swimming and Life-Saving Association Inc. (TCSLAI) described the bell as a rare find that could date back to the Spanish era.
It took six divers to carry the huge bell, which weighed over 500 kilos and whose surface was covered with corals.
Alfie Fernandez, a diver, told Sun.Star Cebu that they used drums so they could pull the bell to the surface, from its resting place about 70 feet deep.
Belleza, who heads the council committee on tourism, cultural and historical affairs, believes the bell was damaged by blast fishing.
Divers could not say for sure if the bell had been cast in silver or bronze.
The bell’s mouth has a circumference of almost two meters.
It is also two meters high.
While Talisay rejoiced in its find, the parish church in Balamban town in western Cebu nearly lost P80,000 worth of religious icons, but some residents saw the burglars with their loot.
Upon learning of the find, Belleza rushed to the house of Fernandez, a TCSLAI officer, in Larawan Beach, Barangay Pobla-cion, where the bell is temporarily being kept.
Belleza quoted William Villaber, a marine biologist, as saying that the bell was more than 100 years old.
Villaber estimated the bell’s age by examining the thick corals on its surface.
Belleza said corals grow merely an inch every year.
It was the second rare find local divers retrieved from Lagundi reef.
An old Navy cap, believed to be that of an American officer, was also found in Lagundi reef, a marine sanctuary just a 10-minute boat ride from Barangay Poblacion’s shoreline.
The shoreline is a historic site where American soldiers made their beachhead landing on March 26, 1945, marking the liberation of Cebu from the Japanese Imperial Army.
With these two finds, local officials reiterated the need to preserve Lagundi reef, as it teems not only with corals and distinctive sea species, but also rare “historical treasures.”
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 14, 2006 issue)
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