CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – There will be no spectacle of gore that has for long impacted Good Friday celebrations in Pampanga this year.
What the Catholic Church hierarchy failed to discourage for so many years, Covid-19 stopped, albeit only for this coming Holy Week.
One of the city’s main tourist draws, the age-old tradition of the reenactment of the crucifixion in at least two sites on Good Friday here has been cancelled, Mayor Edwin Santiago announced Tuesday.
Earlier, the Angeles City government cancelled all public events for the Holy Week, including the “Siete Palabras” drama culminating in actual crucifi xion in Barangay Lourdes Northwest on Good Friday.
“We don’t have to panic. We just have to follow Department of Health protocols including the joint memorandum for holding public gatherings. We are not disrespecting their religious beliefs and practices, but we actually are protecting them from the disease that may put them and their family at risk,” the mayor said, referencing to those who undergo actual crucifixion.
The cancellation of the rites, Santiago stressed, is one of the precautionary measures the city is undertaking to ensure the health and safety of both city residents and tourists against Covid-19, in the wake of the declaration of a State of Public Health Emergency by President Duterte recently.
Santiago also cited the earlier DOH recommendation for all local government units to cancel public gatherings which attract huge crowds—particularly those with more than 1,000 attendees— in order to contain Covid-19.
Leaders of Barangays San Juan and San Pedro Cutud, hosts to the actual crucifixion rites were reported to have acceded to the cancellation, even as they decided to push through with the traditional “Pabasa” or the singing of the Passion of Christ which also attracts crowds but much smaller in scope than in the crucifixions.
Barangay Sta. Lucia reportedly cancelled its own “Lasa ning Guinu” presentation of the Passion and instead will put up an “Oplan Bantay Magdarame” to assist its fl agellants. Barangay Teresita also cancelled its “Tira Bakal” and discouraged constituents from participating in flagellation rites.
City hall said the said barangays will further hold a separate meeting to identify their flagellants and dissuade them from their bloody penitential practices. If they failed, the barangays are enjoined to have their own Event Infection Control Plan as a precautionary measure.
The city’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease of San Fernando has issued Resolution No. 2020-001 recommending the adoption of the City Infection Control Policy for all public events in the city.
City health officer Dr. Eloisa Aquino said that events’ organizers are required to strictly implement all the guidelines in handling guests during their activity.
The guidelines include monitoring of all participants in public events with infrared thermometers, providing the participants with hand sanitizers or 70% isopropyl alcohol and surgical masks, and providing wastebaskets for the proper disposal of all types of wastes.
As foremost measure against Covid-19, the city encourages and advises the public to avoid attending events that are crowded, and practice self-protection measures to avoid transmission of the said disease.
