Peñafrancia devotee dies in traslacion

NAGA CITY, Camarines Sur — A sea of humanity spilled into the streets of this city for the Nuestra Señora de Penafrancia’s traslacion last Friday, but the festivity resulted in a brief stampede that killed one devotee and the accidental electrocution of three others.

The event kicking off the weeklong celebration of the Peñafrancia Festival in Bicol began peacefully and orderly, however, there were three people perched on a lamppost who were electrocuted.

It was not yet clear if the electrocutions were directly related to the stampede that led to the death of one devotee, whose name has not been released as of presstime yesterday afternoon.

Earlier, Mayor John G. Bongat of this city said that while the entire country is under a state of lawlessness, security during the festivities has been assured by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), both of which deployed additional forces on the ground.

However, Bongat said the peaceful procession or traslacion had cellphone users out of touch because communication signals from network providers were cut off as an extra precautionary measure.

The traslacion signaled the official start of the nine-day Peñafrancia Festival honoring the Patroness of the Bicol Region, the only regional cult in the country.

Although there are events that have also become tradition such as the Ms. Bicolandia pageant, held Wednesday night, the archdiocese and the city government agreed some years back to allow the devout space for spiritual exercise separate from the distraction of so called commercial events.

Traslacion literally means transfer, is a huge, vibrant, and at the same time pious procession moving the centuries-old image of “Ina,” how Bicolanos fondly call their patroness, from her shrine to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral for a 9-day novena and masses after which she is brought back to the Penafrancia Basilica Minore via a colorful fluvial procession on her feast day on September 17.