Naga braces for a million pilgrims

A REPLICA of the image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, which was carved and painted with dog’s blood by local artisans three centuries ago, dominates the landscape in the backyard of the Bishop’s Residence in Naga City while pet sheep graze on the grass lawn. JUAN ESCANDOR JR.

NAGA CITY, Philippines—Over a million pilgrims are expected to flock to this city starting next week to take part in a centuries-old feast to honor the Bicol region’s most revered Catholic icon, Our Lady of Peñafrancia, or Ina.

The fiesta is celebrated for nine days beginning Sept. 12, the second Friday of September, with the “translacion,” a 3-kilometer procession of barefoot men, known as “voyadores,” carrying the image of Ina from its shrine to Naga Metropolitan Cathedral.

It will culminate on Sept. 20 in a fluvial procession on Naga River as the image is returned to the cathedral.

Naga City Mayor John Bongat reactivated the operations center of the Peñafrancia Interagency Task Group of the on Thursday.

Composed of government agencies, police, military, civil groups and the Archdiocese of Caceres here, the task group was first created in 2010 during the 300th year of the feast, which began in 1710.

The feast has since grown into a mammoth event that draws millions of people to this city.

President Aquino declared Naga City in Camarines Sur province the Pilgrimage Capital of the Philippines on Sept. 10, 2010 through Proclamation No. 33.

Bongat said the feast is also celebrated outside Naga City and in other countries where there are Bicolano communities.

The feast, he said, “is a unifying factor for us Bicolanos.”

Joselito Del Rosario, chief of the Naga City Public Safety Office, said the task group, based inside the compound of the Bishop’s Residence here, would ensure the orderly and peaceful conduct of the celebration.

Brig. Gen. Felix Castro Jr., representing the 9th Infantry Spear Division, committed 600 soldiers for security duty. He also promised to allow the use of military helicopters for authorities to have a bird’s eye view of the event.

Senior Supt. Arnold Albis, representative of the Philippine National Police, committed 600 policemen in addition to the 150 members of the Naga City police office. Albis also committed the use of 12 patrol vehicles for security arrangements.

Archbishop Rolando Tria Tirona, of the Archdiocese of Caceres, who will lead the celebration for the second time since he was installed as archbishop in 2012, said he was “awed” by the way the fiesta celebration is being organized.

“For my first celebration of the Peñafrancia fiesta, I remember being so overwhelmed by so many people, people from different places and agencies, which I never encountered in other dioceses, where we also have fiestas,” he said.

He said what he witnessed here could be compared to the celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila, in terms of the number of people and the devotion.

Tirona said the task force must help give a memorable experience to the millions of pilgrims who are expected to come to the city not just to pay homage to Ina but to bring with them pleas for healing and improvement in their lives.