Devotion to our INA

Devotion to our INA

by:

Charlene R. Borromeo

When it’s month of September, for many devotees it only means one thing – Penafrancia festival or the birthday of our beloved Mother Mary. This year we recently just concluded the Penafrancia festival, Bicolanos are look up to Ina as our Patron and guide all through the years most especially in times of frustrations, defeat, sufferings and pain. The week-long celebration of Penafrancia consist of several activities in leadership of the Naga city government like Fluvial procession, Traslascion, Novena masses, military parade, street dancing competition, night out celebration with local bands and many other activities in Naga city Plaza. If we are to look at it, this is one of the best times of the year in Naga city in terms of tourism attraction as many devotees from all around the country and even abroad come to home to pay tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Many hotels are fully booked during these days and many local vendors are able to get higher income and profit because of the many people visiting the city. There are also activities like trade fairs where local Bicolano products are being showcased in order to attract investors as well as to promote our produce. In spite all of these opportunities for Bicol tourism during the Penafrancia festival, it’s sad to say that there are also people who is taking advantage of the celebration for their own benefit like the politicians.

 After the death of DILG secretary Jessie Robredo, I realized that Filipino people are very thirsty for good governance. We are very much affected by his lost not just because he is our fellow Bicolano but because we saw and we know how well he is in terms of political government. There have been so many publications and news that were published and aired describing the life he lived as well as the kind of governance we has rendered to Bicolanos when he was still the City Mayor and when he became the secretary of DILG. The celebration of Penafrancia is even more meaningful this year as we also remember our former Mayor Jessie Robredo who is a devotee of Ina and it’s very common to see him during the festival together with many voyadores. Now we also celebrate in thanksgiving that Ina had rendered us such a wonderful and responsible person who lifted up Naga city into where we are right now. If we look visit social networking sites we can see a lot people sympathizing and acknowledging his good works and example but there are also politicians who took advantage of this situation for their own benefits. I saw one post in facebook, people who joined the fluvial procession dressed in uniform with a shout out of a politician’s name.  Even though its election time once again, I think it’s inappropriate to use this holy and solemn celebration for political campaign. For me one of the problems our tourism is facing right now is the kind of politics and political tradition we have in our country. Many tourism spots are converted into commercial spaces that have destroyed its natural beauty like the one featured in ABS-CBN current news and public affairs program, Failon Ngayon. It’s sad that Boracay’s natural environment was destroyed just because politicians on office allowed it to happen even if it’s against the environmental law. I believe we can improve our tourism and attract more tourists in our country without compromising our nature. Let’s stand to our tourism tagline; It’s more fun in the Philippines! For me, this is the best way to describe Filipinos that no matter how life seemed to be very difficult for many of us we still love life and live it to the fullest. This tagline also best describes our natural landscape; our land is very rich in terms of natural resources as well as natural beauty of nature. Wherever we go, there is always a tourism spot that we can be proud of. It’s more fun in the Philippines because of the beautiful smiles, hospitable people, wonderful nature and amazing Filipino culture. Let this be our image not as a government of greedy politicians.