Police in Cotabato detain priest for transporting dead Christ statue.

A Catholic priest transporting a life-size statue of Santo Entierro (dead Christ) was held at a checkpoint in Kidapawan City in the Philippines after police mistook the statue for a “salvage” victim (an extrajudicial killing). Fr. Jonel Peroy was returning home with the statue that his parish had bought for a Lenten activity when he was stopped by police. The police were suspicious of what they thought was a man wrapped in plastic in the priest’s car. The priest was perspiring as he tried to explain that it was just a plaster sculpture of the dead Christ, but the lawmen insisted on checking. The priest had a quick glance at the statue through the car window and agreed that it really looked like a man wrapped in plastic. The image of Santo Entierro is displayed during Holy Week after the observance of the Seven Last Words on Good Friday, when Jesus Christ was said to have died on the cross.