The Sto. Niño de Cebu is going to jail.
The Augustinian fathers will bring an image of the Child Jesus to the Cebu City Jail in barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City on Tuesday, Jan. 10, to give prisoners a chance to pay homage to the Sto. Niño.
The “Duaw Señor Santo Niño sa Mga Preso sa Sugbu” is part of the religious activities for the 446th Fiesta Señor celebration which started yesterday.
Jail detainees will have be allowed to view the Sto. Niño up close in the late afternoon of Jan. 10.
The image will stay overnight in jail where a vigil and cultural presentations will be held.
Fr. Bartolome Sagadal, chaplain of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, said they will confer the rank of deputy director general on the Sto. Nino on Jan. 11.
He said the rank is the highest position among BJMP officials.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo is expected to attend the activity, he said.
At 4 p.m. on the same day, the image will be transported back to the Basilica del Sto. Nino in downtown Cebu City.
Last year, the Sto. Nino image visited the Talisay City jail.
“The Duaw Señor Sto. Niño will be brought to those deprived of coming over to the basilica,” said Fr. Tito Soquiño.
In past years, Msgr. Cristobal Garcia of the Cebu Archdiocese, would bring the Sto. Niño image used in the fluvial procession to the Cebu city jail, the Cebu prvincial jail and other jail facilities after the feast day.
This year’s theme is “Sto. Niño: Refuge of the Filipino Christian Family.”
“The prisoners, in a sense, come from broken families,” Soquiño said.