APALIT -- Boat owners who will participate in the forthcoming Saint Peter feast fluvial parade are required to register their vehicles for security measures as implemented by the 2018 Fiesta Executive Committee.
Mayor Peter Nucom, who serves as the honorary chairman of the committee, said the measure aims to identify all the participants in the celebration in honor of this town’s patron saint Saint Peter the Apostle set every June 28 and 30.
On June 28, parishioners and devotees of Saint Peter the Apostle join in the fluvial procession to fetch the patron saint from Barangay Cansinala and bring it back on June 30 from the parish church.
“While it’s a free registration, we will still require all participants, both boat owners and passengers, for our monitoring purposes. This is especially for boat without stabilizers who join the fluvial parade, so that we can provide additional safety measures to them,” he explained.
The Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) will facilitate that registration of boats on June 27 at the Bamboo Hub located under the Sulipan-Tabuyuc Bridge in Barangay Sulipan here, Nucom said.
“We will strictly implement the ‘no registration, no participation’ rule because this concerns the safety of the people. We are closely working with the other MDRRMOs of the other towns to help us monitor the situation,” he said.
Nucom said that the whole Apalit police force led by newly-installed police chief, Superintendent Roland Agohob, was tasked to secure the town during the festival.
The local police will be augmented by personnel of the Pampanga Provincial Police Office and police stations, Nucom also said.
“We have met with Senior Superintendent Nicolas Salvador (PPPO Director) to ask for additional police forces because we are expecting hundreds of devotees to join us in the fluvial parade, aside from those that will watch on land,” he added.