Sto. Niño’s image to join Parade of Lights – Cristina

TACLOBAN CITY-Contrary to rumors, religiosity remain part and parcel of the Sangyaw Festival celebration.

This was stressed by Councilor Cristina Gonzales Romualdez who said that the non-inclusion of the image of Tacloban’s patron saint, Santo Niño (Child Jesus), would not only be sacrilege but a political suicide.

“I really don’t know why such story came out. It is so impossible for us to do that. Remember, we are a Catholic country and doing that, people will get mad at us,” Romualdez said during her first appearance at the media forum “Express it at the Park” held at the Leyte Park Resort.

“And it would be politically wrong to do that. Diri ito tuod (its not true),” the wife of city Mayor Alfred Romualdez added.

The alleged non-inclusion of the image of the Santo Niño during the city government-initiated street parade on June 29, circulated for the past weeks now, blaming the city’s first couple to have made such order.

The Romualdez couple is said to be Christian, said not to venerate images of saints.

But the lady councilor said that their Christian belief would not preclude them not to include the image of the patron saint during the street parade.

“Whether we’re Christian or Catholic, we’re all the same,” Romualdez said.

Incidentally, this year’s fiesta “hermano mayor” is the Santo Niño Parish.

Councilor Romualdez, meantime, said that it’s all systems to go for the newly-created Parade of Lights on the vesper day of Tacloban’s June 30 fiesta.

“It’s all ready. We have 20 floats participating the Parade of Lights with 19 contingents,” she said.

According to Romualdez, the parade would start at around 5 p.m. around the main streets of the city with the floats representing various historical events to have occurred in Eastern Visayas.

She defended the move to change the Sangyaw Festival to a more “high technology” parade, saying that it would give Tacloban a distinct category.

“You know, some of our festivals are almost the same. What you see in Cebu can be seen in Bacolod. But with our Parade of Lights, people will immediately recognize that its Tacloban” Romualdez.

And for this year’s festival, the city government is said to have allocated around P10 million, counting for the entire celebration. (JOEY A. GABIETA)

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Posted by lsde on Jun 25 2012. Filed under Second Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.