Drunken ‘voyadores’ still Peñafrancia headache

NAGA CITY—Drunkenness during the procession is still a “hard habit to break” for the voyadores.

Even before the image of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia can be carried out of the shrine in Barangay Peñafrancia here for the translacion (ritual transfer), eight voyadores were already playing with bottles in a nearby convenience store, just 500 meters from the shrine, evidently under the influence of liquor.

Along the stretch of Peñafrancia Avenue, where the image of the Virgin Mary would be carried on its way to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral, many voyadores are seated along the thoroughfare, some of whom are drinking beer in bottles or can, also tipsy from drinking.

Voyadores refer to the barefoot male devotees who are commonly dressed in T-shirts and headbands of various colors.

The local Church has discouraged voyadores from drinking alcoholic beverages before joining the procession but the drinking continues.

“When I started to become a voyador, I was told by older voyadores that I should drink before joining the procession or I could not make it,” said Aaron Lovell Casillan, 25.

During the procession, throngs of men turn the route into a sea of people impossible to cut through for anyone who wants to touch the image.

“You need to drink or else you would not bear being exposed to the smell of sweat, alcohol and others,” said Casillan.

But he conceded it’s really peer pressure because his friends who joined the procession also drank beforehand.

Robert Jaucian, 36, was 16 when he first tried to be a voyador but although he also drank before the procession, the reason he has been a voyador for years has been to ask God through the Virgin Mary to give him luck and lighten his daily burdens. “Joining the procession lightens everyday life,” he said.

Erwin Briones, 48, who has been a voyador since he was 25, said, however, there was really no need to drink before the procession.

“It’s good to join the procession without drinking because you can really focus on expressing your devotion,” he said.

He said he had prayed to God through the Virgin Mary to let his children finish college although he has really no stable source of income to send them to school.

Jason Candelaria, 25, whose brother Shawn, now in Canada, used to join him in the procession, said whether one drinks or not, both of which he tried before, does not make any difference.

“It’s the same, there’s no difference. Even without drinking, you can still make it,” he said. With reports from Shiena Barrameda and Juan Escandor Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon