HERMOSA, Bataan—A priest on the way to hold Mass died after the tricycle he was driving tilted while passing over mounds of sand in Barangay Saba here Sunday.
The victim, Rev. Fr. Joel Jimenez, 57, parish priest for almost five years at the Holy Trinity Church in Barangay Balsik, this town, was rushed to the Bataan Peninsula Medical Center in Dinalupihan, Bataan but he died at the Intensive Care Unit at 12:21 a.m. Monday.
“One of the tires of the tricycle came off due to the mounds of sand. Father Joel was thrown off balance,” parish coordinator Nardito Tolentino said.
The priest was alone in the tricycle when the accident happened.
Bishop Ruperto Santos of the Diocese of Balanga announced the death of Father Joel.
Tolentino said the priest left the Holy Trinity Church at past 5 a.m. Sunday to hold Mass at the nearby village of Saba when he met the accident.
Father Joel, who was from San Ramon in Dinalupihan, was ordained to the priesthood on Dec. 10, 1983.
He was one of the children of an Army colonel father and a mother who was elementary school principal. The parents were both dead.
One of his brothers is also a priest in Bataan.
Father Joel was assigned in various parishes under the Diocese of Balanga before his assignment in Balsik.
His remains will stay at the Balsik Church until Friday and to be transferred at the Saint Joseph Cathedral in Balanga City on Saturday.
Interment follows after the 8 a.m. Mass at the cathedral on May 23.
