"Voyadores" Flood Peñafrancia Traslacion

NAGA CITY-Even the downpour brought by a brewing storm did not dampen the piety that was also trickling on Friday as thousands of Bikolanos kicked off the nine-day festivities in honor of their "Ina" (mother), the Our Lady of Peñafrancia, through the traditional traslacion, a foot procession.

The procession, which dates back to the 17th century, transferred the image of Mary and the Divino Rostro (Holy Face of Jesus) from the Peñafrancia Shrine to the Naga City Metropolitan Cathedral.

It was participated by thousands of men wearing colorful headbands, referred to as voyadores, altered form of the Spanish word vogadores, which means seafarers.

The voyadores, chanting "Viva la Virgen! "(Long live the Virgin!) formed an almost impenetrable sea of men that guarded and pushed the platform carrying the images of the Divino Rostro and the Our Lady of Peñafrancia.

Along with the rain of piety however was the storming of the heavens as voyadores petition God for long life, healing, safety-and world peace.

David Melgar, 69, said he first took part in the procession 40 years ago. "I believe that my faith has been strengthened by joining the procession. I have always asked God to protect my family and he never has failed me."

Roy Alimain, 45, said he has been a voyadores since 1979. "It has been my pledge since God healed my child from asthma." He said every time he would join the procession, he would ask God to bind his family together.

William Florida, 38, said he had been joining the procession as a form of sacrifice. "What are few hours of walking and pushing if you are doing it to serve God?"

Florida said he had prayed for long life, safety of his family, and world peace while joining the traslacion. But in this year's procession he said he chose to pray for his 72-year-old mother who just had been out of the hospital for high blood pressure. "I prayed to God to give my mother long life or at least extra days, although I am surrendering everything to him."

Junjun Guiterrez, 22, said he first joined the procession to ask God to let him pass the Nursing licensure exam. "I passed the exam. But now I joined the traslacion again to ask God to let my friends pass the same exam."

He said he was planning to work abroad someday. "If that happens, I will always go back to Naga City whenever I have the chance, just to be a voyador of Ina.

Although a display of piety, the procession has not been free from distractions.

Federico Saludes, 64, said most young persons would join the procession just for fun. "Kadaklan nadadara lang kang barkada kaya marawraw." (Most of them do it because of peer pressure that's why they just play around.)

But Guiterrez said they joined the procession not to play around. "We joined to express our faith in Ina and to show our camaraderie at the same time. We belong to the new generation of voyadores. Yes, there are those young persons like us who join the procession just for fun, but we are different from them."

During the Mass held after the procession on Friday, droves of voyadores forced their way up to the pulpit, where the image of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia was placed, resulting in a mad dash that saw several voyadores slipping and falling down the platform.

Men in cassocks were seen pushing voyadores, evidently annoyed by the unruliness.

The same unruliness was the reason why the platforms carrying the image of the Divino Rostro and the image of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia were redesigned this year into bigger and taller contraptions to prevent anyone from reaching the images and causing undue damage.

The earlier platforms had made it so easy for some unruly voyadores to pull down the images and grab decorations, mostly flowers, believing that those would give them good luck.