In Zambales, pilgrims barred from converging to honor Ina Poón Bato

BOTOLAN, ZAMBALES — Pilgrims will be barred from converging at the shrine of Ina Poón Bato in this town as a 14-day lockdown was imposed on the area where devotees usually celebrated the feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Jan. 24.

The municipal council has banned the mass gathering during the 10-day feast celebration as precaution against the spread of the coronavirus disease.

A lockdown in the entire Loob Bunga resettlement area here will begin on Jan. 16 until Jan. 29 to prevent devotees from going to the shrine.

Instead, the novena that starts on Jan. 16 and the feast day Masses will be streamed live on social media platforms so devotees can virtually join the prayers of the community.

Only residents of Loob Bunga will be allowed to attend the Masses.

The traditional procession, “pahalik,” or kissing on the image, and “pagtulos ng kandila,” or lighting of candle, were also canceled, according to local officials.

In the past years, thousands of devotees had been converging for days at the bottom of the hill near the church that houses the wooden Marian image.

Little queen

The Aeta in this province had been worshiping the wooden statue they called Apo Apang even before the first missionaries from the Augustinian Recollects arrived here in 1607.

Apo Apang is the other name for the image, which means “little queen.”

The image survived the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and it was soon associated with the Virgin Mary, prompting the Catholic Church to dub the image as Ina Poón Bato (Mother of the Lord Rock).

Pilgrims venerate it as they attributed its “healing power” to miraculous cures.

It is being kept at a shrine hosted by the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, or the Aglipayan Church.