Tourists urged to respect Cebu culture, tradition

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Provincial Tourism has urged tourists who are planning to spend Holy Week in Bantayan Island, northern Cebu to respect the culture and tradition of the local community.

Boboi Costas, head of the Provincial Tourism Office, said tourists should properly observe the locals’ religious activities and not disrespect them.

“It is supposed to be a week of spirituality and it should be a week of fasting. I think it is proper and appropriate for tourists, especially those going to Bantayan, to respect the observance of their tradition,” he said in response to the planned music festival in Sta. Fe, Bantayan.

Some Catholic faithful in Sta. Fe have opposed the plan of a group to stage the gig, which is dubbed Music Festival Food and Fashion 2017, in time for the Holy Week. It particularly falls on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday or April 13 to 15, respectively.

Governor Hilario Davide III, Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, C ebu Archbishop José Palma, and Reverend Father Roy Bucag, Santo Niño parish priest in Santa Fe town, are also against the holding of the activity.

Costas said the concerned local government units should promote responsible tourism, which is “actually respecting the host community’s culture and tradition.”

Bantayan attracts tourists with its unusual fiesta-like atmosphere during Holy Week.

For several decades, Costas said local and international tourists flock to the island for what is often mistaken as the island’s fiesta (feast day) during the Holy Week. The possible cause is perhaps the peculiar manner that the Bantayanons have traditionally celebrated Holy Week with the grandiose processions.

For Catholics, Holy Week is a commemoration of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. In the Philippines, among the practices generally observed during Lent are fasting and abstinence from meat products, especially on Good Friday.

“Ang tan-aw man gud sa mga tawo ang ilang nakit-an kay ang Bantayan pang Holy Week .Ang misconception nila kay fiesta which is not,” he said.

Costas has appealed to the event organizers to reschedule the event after the Holy Week.

“Unsa may purpose nila?  Is it just money making scheme? I mean we should respect the locals. Some things can be legally correct but morally wrong. So I think it’s a matter of perspective,” he said. (FREEMAN)