Controversial Parade Pushes Through Amid Boycott

NAGA CITY-Participants of the Bikol regional military parade competition missed either old friends or old foes.

Several Catholic schools in the region, including the Jesuit-run Ateneo De Naga University, did not join the military parade this year because the parade was held within the nine-day festivities in honor of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia.

"A military parade has no relevance to either the celebration or the enhancement of the devotion to [Mary] so it should not be scheduled within the novena to Our Lady of Peñafrancia," said Fr. Joel E. Tabora, S.J., president of Ateneo de Naga University and Bicol Association of Catholic Schools (BACS).

In June, BACS member-schools said they would not take part in the traditional military parade if held within the fiesta week.

The schools have participated in the military parade the past years but have decided against it this year, although at least seven still joined despite the position of BACS.

"Contingents from 336 schools all over Bikol will participate in this year's military parade," said Vic Avila, chairman of the city committee on military parade.

The parade virtually fills Panganiban Avenue and the other thoroughfares in the city proper for hours every time it is held.

Touted as the region's longest street parade, it was at risk of not being staged this year because BACS and some members of the local Church some questioned its relevance to the celebration of Peñafrancia festivities.

But after a series of meetings between the Archdiocese of Caceres and the city government, the parade was retained. The two parties agreed on the parade's role in instilling the values of camaraderie, discipline, and sportsmanship among young persons in Bikol.

The parade is not the only one among the traditional civic events during the Peñafrancia festivities that almost did not make it this year.

Ms. Bicolandia beauty pageant also was put at risk of not being staged this year after the local Church and the city government decided to ban beauty pageants held on fiesta week. But it pushed through a week before the festivities.

 

Many other city-government sponsored civic activities traditionally scheduled within the nine-day festivities either were cancelled or moved to another date outside the fiesta week after their relevance to the Marian celebration were questioned.

In turn, the nine-day Marian celebration was limited to religious and cultural activities after the city government chose to launch its own festival dubbed as Viva Naga, Viva Bicolandia Festival, which coincides with the festivities and covers civic activities.

On Tuesday, however, church-based groups said they were "dismayed and disappointed" by the festival.

In an open letter to Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo, published in this paper, the Council of the Laity of the Archdiocese of Caceres said the festival included activities that, "on moral grounds," should be banned within the fiesta week.

"It is very clear that pageants and beer plazas should not be held within the period of the novena."

The group objected to the city government's approval of several privately-sponsored talent searches and beauty pageants, including the controversial Pretty Boy Bicolandia and Miss Gay Young Bicolandia.

It also opposed the "public intoxication" activities sponsored by a liquor company.

"Those involved in the conceptualization, approval and implementation of these activities [should] be made accountable for having violated a bilateral agreement that pageants, street parties, and beer plazas are no longer features of Peñafrancia Fiesta."

It said treating parades, mall tours, fashion shows, dance showdowns, regattas, cooking demos, bull rides, videoke challenges, and food expos to be of equal value with sacraments and religious practices was offensive.

But Viva Naga, Viva Bicolandia Festival marketing committee head Florencio Tam-Mongoso, who is also the manager of the city government's public employment office, said the previous agreement between the local church and the city government only covers activities held in Plaza Quezon.

"That's why Plaza Quezon is exclusive for use every night in activities sanctioned by the local Church. All other activities are held in private venues.

He said the city government had decided to cancel the activities which the local Church did not agree with, and ordered the reprinting of the official program of activities.

The reprinted program does not include anymore the activities sponsored by a liquor family.

"Although it is considering the issues raised by the local Church, the city government cannot ban any activity that does not violate existing city ordinance or national law. We are in a free country."

In the meantime, Fr. Wilmer Joseph Tria, who vocally opposed and condemned the conduct of street parties during the fiesta week in 2007, pointed out that "Viva Naga Viva Bicolandia Festival during September is meant to perpetuate the commercialization of the religious feast."

He said the "spirit" of the joint agreement did not refer to any specific venue and banned activities based on moral grounds, "whether they are held in the plaza or anywhere else."

"Being a party to these sponsorship contracts, the city government has control over these activities.  The city can design a sponsorship proposal taking into consideration the agreement with the Archdiocese of Caceres," Tria said.

"The problem is that Council of Laity has assumed that just because one of the activities is participated by gays, it is automatically immoral," said Jose B. Perez of the Naga City Visitors Center.

Perez said the city government cannot ban activities participated by the gay community because it would be a violation of their (gay community) rights.

"Several members of the council of laity are lawyers, they should know better," added Perez.

But Judge Novelita Villegas-Llaguno, president of the Apostleship of Prayer under the Council of Laity, said they were not against activities of the gay community but they objected to the conduct of pageants and promotion of public intoxication during the Peñafrancia novena week.

The Peñafrancia festivities kicked off September 11 with the transfer of the image of the Virgin Mary from the Peñafrancia Shrine to the Naga City Metropolitan Cathedral in a foot procession called traslacion.

It culminated in a fluvial procession at the Naga River on Saturday, September 19, that took the image of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia from the Cathedral to the Basilica Minore.