“Tumaas ang isang gulong ng tricycle dahil sa tumpok ng buhangin. Na-out balance at tumilapon si Father Joel,” parish coordinator Nardito Tolentino said.
The priest was alone in the tricycle.
The victim was Rev. Fr. Joel Jimenez, 57, parish priest for almost five years at the Holy Trinity Church in Barangay Balsik, Hermosa.
The priest was rushed to the Bataan Peninsula Medical Center in Dinalupihan but died at the intensive care unit at 12:21 a.m. Monday.
Bishop Ruperto Santos of the Diocese of Balanga announced the death of Father Joel.
Tolentino said the priest left the Holy Trinity Church past 5 a.m. Sunday to hold 5:30 a.m. Mass at the nearby village of Saba when he met the accident.
Workers at the construction site in Saba said the sand were well stocked on the side of the road but children apparently played on it that caused some sand to scatter on the portion of the road.
Father Joel who hailed from San Ramon, Dinalupihan was ordained to the priesthood on December 10, 1983.
He was one of the children of an Army colonel father and a mother who was elementary school principal. The parents are 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 to the Saint Joseph Cathedral in Balanga City on Saturday. Interment follows after the 8 a.m. Mass at the cathedral on Monday, May 23.
