THOUSANDS of devotees braved the chilly morning air and a steady drizzle to view the images of the Señor Sto. Niño and Our Lady of Guadalupe in yesterday morning’s two-hour fluvial procession from Mandaue to Cebu City.
The Coast Guard declared the event as peaceful and orderly, and marred by no major events. Last year, a motor banca capsized off a private wharf in Mandaue City.
Maritime authorities, who deployed sea marshals and radio communicators, managed to keep latecomers and unregistered craft at bay.
But a perennial problem surfaced: some confusion as motorized bancas tried to overtake the lead vessel upon reaching Cebu City’s pier.
Some motor bancas went ahead apparently to get a closer view of the “galleon” bearing the glass-encased images of the Señor Sto. Niño and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The galleon is a private yacht of the Ouano family, which has traditionally been used to bring the images back to Cebu City on the eve of the fiesta.
Reporters noticed that a tugboat got rear-ended by a bigger vessel, while other boats nearly collided as they struggled for room in the narrow Mactan Channel. More than 100 seacraft joined the parade.
Still, overcast skies and a light rain failed to dampen the enthusiasm of thousands of devotees, who lined up on the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge and various piers in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.
The devotees, most of them clad in jackets and caps and bearing umbrellas, were already in place more than two hours before the fluvial parade sailed at 7 a.m.
The annual religious event is meant to remind devotees of the historic arrival of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in Cebu in 1521.
“The mystery of incarnation and crucifixion, the birth and death of Christ, mao’y nakahingpit sa iyang pagluwas kanato (these made our salvation possible),” said Msgr. Arthur Navales in the mass before the parade began.
It took an hour to bring the images from the National Shrine of St. Joseph near the Mandaue City Hall to the Ouano wharf, some two kilometers away.
By 7:05 a.m., Mayor Jonas Cortes, his wife Sarah and City Hall officials waved goodbye to the images.
Police estimated that some 7,000 devotees filled the wharf to send the images off.
The Mandaue City Police Office declared a “heightened alert” since the arrival of the images last Friday morning, said Opao Police Station commander Senior Insp. Alfredo Ortiz.
Along the Mactan Channel, firecrackers popped as the galleon bearing the images passed by.
Devotees waved their hands and released white, red and blue balloons containing their petitions.
The horns of passenger and cargo ferries docked at the piers blared as the “galleon” sailed by.
The poor weather, however, took away some of the procession’s color. No military chopper was around to drop confetti or flowers on the lead vessel. Only one private helicopter was seen hovering high above the Mactan Channel.
Still, the weather didn’t stop appearances by prominent figures or political candidates for the May 10 polls.
Reelectionist Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and her running mate, Glenn Soco, were seen aboard a private yacht. Newly assumed Cebu Provincial Police Director Erson Digal escorted them on board.
A yacht carrying the name of a health drink brand owned by reelectionist Vice Gov. Greg Sanchez was also among the participating seacraft.
Former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 director Reynaldo Esmeralda was also seen on board a motorboat carrying an NBI banner. Esmeralda, a Sto. Niño devotee, now serves as deputy director for technical services at the agency’s head office.
Despite its minor lapses, the fluvial procession arrived on time at Pier 1 in Cebu City, where crowds had patiently waited for the icons as early as 4 a.m.