Mobile phone signal cut off in Iligan City for feast

ILIGAN CITY –– Mobile phone signals are cut off from 6 a.m. to noontime in the urban area of this city for three days starting today, as a security precaution for the Diyandi Festival and the observance of the feast of the city’s patron, Saint Michael the Archangel, on Sept. 29.

In a statement, the festival’s executive management board said the local government has made arrangements about this with telecoms service providers and announced it to the people way before.

Today, the six-hour cut-off of mobile phone signal coincides with the entire length of the street dancing tilt, which will see contingents snaking through the city’s major thoroughfares until it ends at the Anahaw Amphitheater where a showdown will take place until 2 p.m.

Thousands of people flock to the city for both events, to take part in the revelry.

Classes are suspended in all levels today, Sept. 27, which could further balloon the number of revelers on the streets.

Doing the Diyandi street dancing, the city’s streets become a moving theatre flooded with dancers, musicians, acrobats and throngs of revelers.

This year, seven schools in Iligan will compete in the Diyandi street dancing that will re-enact the “eskrima” or the battle between Saint Michael the Archangel Michael and Lucifer.

The dance will also demonstrate other fundamentals such as the “yawa-yawa” or cursing the devil and the chanting of religious oration in Maranao and Higanunon dialects.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, there will be a civic-military parade, and on Sept. 29, from 6 a.m. to noontime, there will be a religious procession around the city for the image of Saint Michael the Archangel./lzb