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Published
By Freddie Velez
CALUMPIT, Bulacan – Thousands of residents and visitors boarded about a hundred bancas for the river procession Sunday, a day before the annual town fiesta of St. John the Baptist.
A colorfully decorated banca joins the fluvial procession in Calumpit Sunday. (FREDDIE VELEZ/ MANILA BULLETIN)
Festival participants were also drenched with water, a traditional activity during the Libad festival.
Governor Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado, said Libad is only one of the popular tourist attractions. It honors St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the San Juan Bautista Church, the oldest church in Bulacan.
Alvarado said the church was originally built of nipa and bamboo under the supervision of Augustinian friars Martín de Rada and Diego Vivar. In 1700, the church was improved little by little into a stone.
Historians said that the church has witnessed the Filipinos’ struggles against Spanish, American, and Japanese govern.
The church has an underground passage inside that was used by priests during the Spanish era, as an escape route in the event of Chinese and Moro pirate attacks. It is a declared Diocesan Shrine of the Diocese of Malolos.
To ensure the safety and security of the people around, including local and foreign visitors in an unforeseen circumstances, Colonel Chito G. Bersaluna, Bulacan police director, directed Lt. Col. Gerardo A. Andaya, chief of police in this town to deploys hundred policemen in the areas and at the same time assigned a policeman in every boat who participated the “Libad Festival.
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