Image of the Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia. (PNA photo by Connie Calipay)
NAGA CITY -- The pagoda carrying the image of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia will be pulled by more than a hundred boats manned by 200 voyadores (devotees) as it navigates the Naga River here during the fluvial procession on Saturday (September 21).
The scenario is expected to be seen after the procession of the image and the flat banner of Divino Rostro from the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral to Danlogan in Barangay Dinaga, which will begin immediately after the culmination of the nine-day prayer for the Divino Rostro and Our Lady of Peñafrancia at the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral.
A road closure will be implemented at exactly 12 noon to give way to the procession. The palanquin or andas carrying the image of "Ina", as Bicolanos fondly call Bicolandia’s patroness, will be escorted by two or three patrol cars of the Philippine National Police. The procession will take more or less an hour.
“The police car will serve as sweepers of boisterous voyadores who may forcibly meet head-on the andas of the miraculous Lady, said M/Sgt. Tobias S. Bongon, public information officer of the Naga City Police Office.
He disclosed that 1,141 PNP personnel will be deployed for the event to do crowd control. Of the number, 213 are plainclothesmen from the intelligence unit tasked to conduct covert operations in order to ensure public safety and security while 150 will pose as voyadores going along with the mammoth crowd.
The number of policemen is exclusive of the number of personnel belonging to other uniformed services of the government like the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Philippine Army, the PNP-Maritime Group, Philippine Air Force, and the Philippine Coast Guard, the lead agency of the water cluster and from which the incident commander is designated.
“Their [policemen] presence will remain constant even during the fluvial procession,” Bongon assured the reporters during Tuesday’s press briefing at the lobby of the City Events, Protocol and Public Information Office.
Ensign Bernardo Pagador, district commander of Philippine Coast Guard in Bicol, said at least 30 floating assets (aluminum and rubber boats) including two units of jet skis from different agencies under the water cluster will be deployed along Naga River to undertake a speedy course of action against any untoward incident and to ensure that the pagoda will sail smoothly without being hindered by rowdy voyadores.
Fr. Pablo Carpio, vice rector of Basilica Minore, said that an estimated of 200 individuals, mostly members of the youth sector from different parishes and dioceses in the Bicol Region, will ride on the pagoda as the Catholic Church declared 2019 as Year of the Youth.
Bongon said the public will be prohibited from staying on Tabuco, Panganiban, Colgante, and Magsaysay bridges to watch the procession. A composite team of 50 personnel from different agencies will be assigned in each bridge for safety and security purposes.
“All the four bridges will only accept pedestrians who wish to go to the other end of the bridge and emergency vehicles like PNP patrol cars, fire trucks and ambulance responding to emergency situations,” he said.
Fire Chief Inspector Manuel Ricafort, fire marshal of the Bureau of Fire Protection here, said that at least 10 fire trucks will be deployed in different areas covering the Central Business Districts I and II for easy and expeditious dispatch 24/7. (Jason Neola/PNA)
