Santo Niño’s image can join Parade of Lights

CONTRARY to rumors, religiosity remains part and parcel of the Sangyaw Festival celebration.

Councilor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez said the non-inclusion of the image of Tacloban’s patron Santo Niño (Child Jesus) would not only be a 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 will make people get mad at us,” Romualdez said during her first appearance at the media forum “Express it at the Park” held at Leyte Park Resort.

“It would be politically wrong to do that. Diri ito tuod (it’s 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, known to be Christians, said not to venerate images of saints.

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

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

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

Councilor Romualdez, meantime, said it is all systems go for the newly created Parade of Lights on the vesper day of Tacloban’s June 30 fiesta with 20 floats participating and 19 contingents.

The parade will start at 5 p.m. around the main streets of the city with the floats representing various historical events that occurred in Eastern Visayas, Romualdez said.

She defended the move to change the Sangyaw Festival to a more “high technology” parade, saying 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 it is “Tacloban,” Romualdez said.

For this year’s festival, the City Government is said to have allocated around P10 million counting for the entire celebration. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)