NAGA CITY, Aug. 13 (PIA) – All roads lead to this city comes September as thousands or close to a million devotees are expected to pay homage and express their unwavering faith to the miraculous “Ina” or Mother of Bicolandia, Our Lady of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia, in an occasion dubbed as the biggest Marian festivity in Asia.
City Mayor John Bongat who also chairs the Joint Operations Center (JOC) together with Most Rev. Rolando J. Tria, OCD, D.D. of the Archdiocese of Caceres, expressed his deep appreciation to the members of the JOC for their continued support to the annual Peñafrancia fiesta and for making every year of the festivity, a memorable event to all Marian devotees.
Part of the preparation is the creation of various working clusters which will focus on specific concerns; security, medical/health, traffic, water, utilities, emergency and the JIC or the Media Cluster.
Each cluster will be represented by its team leader to facilitate decisions and execution of major decisions relative to the safe and orderly conduct of the Peñafrancia festivity.
Bongat said that as always, the safety of every devotee counts as the primordial concern of the LGU.
“Security concerns when it comes to our visitors and devotees will always be on top of the city’s main concerns. We need to ensure the smooth implementation of the various core activities that’s why there is a need to reconstitute and re-organize the Peñafrancia Executive Council, including other support committees,” Bongat clarified.
Naga City Public Safety Officer (PSO) Renne Gumba facilitated the cluster workshop with focus on key areas for discussion including each agency’s inventory of personnel and its available equipment.
“I am happy to note, as a result of the workshop that most of the JOC members are ready to share their resources, equipment and manpower just to ensure a peaceful and orderly conduct of the festivity. The clusters also raised concerns that should be addressed by the JOC collectively,” Gumba added.
Some of the concerns raised during the workshop includes whether there is a necessity for a signal jam during the festivity’s major events- the Traslacion and fluvial procession, ensure that there is a provision of fire and emergency lanes and prohibition of non-registered drones during the religious events, among others. (LSMacatangay-PIAV/Camarines Sur)