CEBU CITY – Devotees braved the early morning rains to join the foot procession from the National Shrine of St. Joseph in Mandaue City and the annual fluvial procession which brought back the images of the St. Niño and the Our Lady of Guadalupe back to the Basilica.
Hundreds of devotees brought out their umbrellas while they joined the 3 a.m. send-off Mass at the national shrine and while they walked the 1.7-kilometer stretch of road from the shrine to the Ouano wharf in Barangay (village) Looc.
Light rains and pools of floodwater on the road slowed down the foot procession which left the shrine about 4:30 a.m.
Unlike in the previous years, no firecracker or pyrotechnics was lighted along the procession route. Most of the roadside residents remained indoors and watched the procession from their windows or widely opened doors.
Baby rockets and bombshells were only lighted when the head of the procession neared the main entrance of the Ouano wharf owned by the family of businessman Antonio Ouano.
Police estimated the crowd of devotees inside the Ouano wharf at about 3,000 people.
A report from radio station dyAB said Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, head of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), was among the hundreds who joined the send-off Mass at the national shrine.
Policemen were deployed at road intersections and along the procession route together with several security volunteers and barangay tanods.
“Safe kaayo akong paminaw (I feel very safe),” said Veronica Ouano, a 50-year-old resident of barangay Tabok in Mandaue City.
Ouano carried her own image of the Sto. Niño while she joined the procession to petition for good health.
The foot procession left the national shrine of St. Joseph at about 4:30 a.m.
Priests, sacristans and other church volunteers led the procession. Volunteers and student interns formed human barricades to secure the images of the Our Lady of Guadalupe and the image of the Sto. Niño which were located about 20 feet away from each other.
Devotees quietly joined the procession. Some brought candles while others carried Sto. Niño images of different sizes.
The procession arrived at the wharf about 5:50 a.m.
Light rains stopped as the images of the entered the gate of the Ouano wharf.
The images were then unloaded from the carroza and boarded into the waiting galleon which also boarded Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma. Balloons in the form of a Rosary were flown while people waved their hands as the galleon moved away from the wharf about 6:05 a.m.
Devotees stayed to watch the galleon leave the wharf even after it started to drizzle again.
The galleon moved to the other side of the Mactan Channel to also allow people crowding the Muelle Osmeña in Lapu-Lapu City to have a glimpse of the two images.
The galleon then moved toward the old Mandaue Mactan bridge where hundreds were also waiting for the two images before it finally left for pier 1 in Cebu City.
Seawaters remained calm during the procession despite the early morning rains.
More than a hundred vessels and motor banca joined the fluvial procession that arrived at the pier 1 in Cebu City shortly before 8 a.m. CDG
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