LENTEN CHARACTERS In this photo taken during the Holy Week in 2017, a group of Morion, or devotees wearing wooden masks and costumes depicting Roman soldiers, prepares for their turn to roam the streets of Sta. Cruz, Marinduque, as part of the Lenten practices in the province. This year, the Moriones will not be staged due to the coronavirus pandemic. —Richard A. Reyes
With the continuing threat of community transmission of the
new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the uncertainty of the availability of
vaccines, the island province of Marinduque, one of the country’s top
destinations during the Lenten season, will remain closed to pilgrims and
tourists.
“We still have to control those coming in. It’s not yet time
to open (Marinduque) for tourism,” Gov. Presbitero Velasco Jr. said in a local
radio broadcast recently.
“But we will study that. I think if there are already
(COVID-19) vaccines, that will be the time to [ease restrictions],” he said.
Velasco, in a recording of his Feb. 21 radio program on his
Facebook page, said it would be a bad idea to open the province to visitors
this year due to the possibility of the new COVID-19 variants spreading in
local communities.
Vaccination program
“We should get vaccinated. But the problem is getting the
vaccine supply is difficult; even the national government is having a hard
time,” he said in a speech during the celebration of the 101st founding
anniversary of Marinduque in the capital Boac on Monday.
Velasco said the provincial government had prepared for its
vaccination program, “but the vaccine is still unavailable.”
He said the province could open its doors to visitors when
at least 70 percent of the island’s more than 230,000 residents had already
been vaccinated to hopefully create herd immunity from the highly contagious
respiratory disease.
No Moriones
Velasco recalled his frustration when the provincial
government was forced to cancel the crowd-drawing Moriones last year.
“To our disbelief and frustration, we have to abandon the major tourist activity that we prepared for because of the onslaught of COVID-19,” he said.
Before the pandemic was declared in March last year,
Marinduque used to welcome thousands of foreign and local tourists and devotees
for its Moriones starting Holy Monday.
Provincial tourism officials, Catholic Church leaders and
residents would join the traditional parade of Morion (devotees wearing wooden
masks and costumes depicting Roman soldiers) to start the Holy Week.
But the Holy Week observance on the island does not only
focus on the festival but also features traditional Lenten activities, such as
the “pasyon” (chanting, or recitation of the Passion of Christ), “cenaculo”
(Lenten play), Visita Iglesia (church visits) and Via Crucis (Way of the
Cross).
Each of the six towns of Marinduque stages all or any of
these events during Lent. —Delfin T. Mallari, Jr./Inquirer
