SAN PABLO CITY, Laguna – The city government and police force here announced on Monday that the city plaza will be temporarily closed to traffic on Good Friday (March 30) in view of the expected exodus of parishioners and Catholic devotees for the Holy Week spectacle on the “Parada ng mga Santo.”
The city government, in partnership with the Samahan ng Mahal na Pasyon Inc. through its president Don Ado Escudero, and local police and traffic management authorities has conferred with the organizers of the Good Friday procession in preparing the rerouting of vehicular traffic around the San Pablo City Cathedral where the procession will originate.
The Good Friday procession is a traditional Lenten event where heavy traffic is expected as tourists, visitors and the Catholic faithful would flock to this city for both religious pilgrimage and tradition of veneration to the procession and parade of around 50 carrozas (carriages) bearing the life-sized images of the Biblical characters depicting the Last Supper, sufferings, passion and crucifixion of Christ.
Acting on the traffic rerouting plan, Police Superintendent Hermogenes D. Cabe, this city police chief said the Jose P. Rizal Avenue extending from the San Pablo City Cathedral up to the corner of Bagong Pook Road and I. Barleta Street from the San Pablo Fire Station up to the corner of P. Zulueta Street, will be temporarily closed to vehicular traffic from 11 a.m. on Good Friday until the evening.
Cabe has deputized traffic enforcers who will be stationed in key areas in the traffic rerouting plan to enforce and guide all Lucena City-bound vehicles from Manila to take the Maharlika Highway instead of passing through the city proper.
Those coming from Liliw-Nagcarlan-Rizal area may take Balagtas Boulevard leading to Maharlika Highway through Crispin Calabia Avenue.
Meanwhile, motorists and vehicles coming from Los Baños-Bay-Calauan area may pass through San Pablo City Subdivision to the Bagong Bayan Section of the Maharlika Highway.
The temporary closure of the roads around and near the vicinity of the public plaza is to allow the movement of devotees, pilgrims and parishioners who are expected to swarm towards the plaza after the “Seven Last Words” and veneration to prepare for the procession which traditionally starts by dusk.
The city police chief said that the traffic scheme will be enforced expecting the Good Friday scenario at sundown when the famous long procession of images and religious icons becomes a convergence of the religious processions of six Catholic parishes and the Philippine Independent Church or Aglipayan congregation observance of Black Friday.
This city’s Lenten religious festivities are highlighted by festive music and the marching bands interspersed through an array of carriages bedecked with flowers, intricate designs and lights, where the huge images garbed in resplendent robes are mounted. (Ruben E. Taningco/PNA)
