A MAN who was reportedly mentally unstable damaged two religious icons in front of a church in Argao town, Cebu.

This act, considered a sacrilege by devout Catholics, was discovered by the police at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 12, 2021.

Witnesses’ accounts showed that the man felled the statue of St. Raphael, breaking one of the wings, while he cracked open the glass shelf containing the statue of St. Michael the

Archangel, at the Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of St. Michael the Archangel.

The police later arrested the man, who is 40 and a resident of Barangay Poblacion, Argao.

Argao Police Station desk officer Howard Minopa said the man reportedly became emotionally and mentally unstable after the latter’s sibling was shot dead.

The man was brought to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for psychiatric treatment.

In an interview, Msgr. Joseph Tan, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Cebu, said the administrators of the parish have no plans to file charges against the man, considering his unstable condition.

Tan added that the man’s family is planning to arrange a settlement with the parish’s Pastoral Council to pay for the damage. (Jude Suhot with JKV)