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Monday, April 21, 2003
500T visitors flock to P'sinan church, beaches
SOME 500,000 domestic and foreign tourists and visitors flocked to the Manaoag Church and beaches in Pangasinan during the Holy Week celebration.
Hundreds of Catholic devotees and foreign tourists went to the pilgrimage town of the province to pay tribute to the miraculous Our Lady of Manaoag while others paid homage to Seņor Divino Tesoro in Calasiao town.
Other people, on the other hand, took their trip to Manaoag, especially last Good Friday, to witness some persons having themselves nailed to the cross as a religious vow in seeking forgiveness from their sins.
Moreover, some others, particularly the lovers of nature, spent the Semana Santa in the beaches of Dagupan City and the towns of San Fabian, Lingayen, Bolinao and Anda as well as in the Hundred Islands National Park in Alaminos City.
The Pangasinan police office noted that there were no untoward incidents in these areas of convergence of people during the period, except the reported drowning of a man at the San Fabian public beach last Saturday.
In a report reaching the provincial command, the fatality was identified as Jesus Biala y Mendoza, 24, married and a resident of Tebeng, Manaoag.
Biala tried to save his daughter Jamaica, 3, and another child, Rochelle Sesmundo, 2, from drowning and successfully made it. But strong underwater current purportedly pulled the man to a deeper portion of the beach and disappeared.
In few minutes, owners of motorboats for lease in the area were able to discover Biala's body.
In Dagupan, 11 lifeguards were deployed in each of the five sitios covering the Bonuan Tondaligan national park even as big billboards were installed along the beach, warning the swimmers not to go beyond the rope with buoys.
Beachgoers were also warned not to dip into the water if drunk or full with food and to refrain from boasting.
The Tondaligan Park Administration, the Philippine Coast Guards, the Public Order and Safety Office (Poso) and the association of shed owners undertook the move to prevent the recurrence of drowning wherein four persons died at the beach since last January.
Lingayen police authorities also regularly patrolled the beaches of the capital, not only to prevent the commission of crimes by unscrupulous persons but also to warn the swimmers from time not to go too far from the shore.
In Manaoag, police overt and covert operations were undertaken to provide security to visitors and foreign faith healers and patients who stayed at the Pyramid of Asia resort. FPM
(April 21, 2003 issue)
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