EDITORIAL - All Sinulog plans must not overshadow the Santo Niño

Traffic authorities have announced that as early as 3 a.m. on the day of the Sinulog grand parade, Cebu City proper will already be off limits to motor vehicles. These motor vehicles will be made to park at SRP, meaning their occupants will need to walk to the city proper.

There is no doubt traffic authorities are guided by the best of intentions. But sometimes the best of intentions are not enough. And no shortcoming can be more glaring than that which fails to take into account the most important of things.

By “the day of the Sinulog grand parade,” traffic authorities must mean Sunday, January 20. They are, of course, correct in that. Sunday, January 20, is indeed the day of the Sinulog grand parade.

But what the traffic authorities failed to consider is that Sunday, January 20, is not just the day of the Sinulog grand parade. More importantly, it is the feast day of the Santo Niño Himself.

Several fiesta Masses, including the solemn High Mass, are scheduled for that day ahead of the Sinulog. Closing the city proper to motor vehicles as early as 3 a.m. of that day means inconveniencing hundreds of thousands who find these Masses more important than the Sinulog.

In fact, the feast of the Santo Niño is far more important than the Sinulog can ever be. An offshoot can never be greater than the source. We can scrap the Sinulog next year and we lose only a festival. Scrap the fiesta, and we lose all sense of who we are.

But there is no scrapping the fiesta because that is the one time in the year when all Santo Niño devotees from the world over get to formally give thanks to the Santo Nino for all the blessings He has tirelessly bestowed upon His people.

Anybody who is anybody with regard to the Sinulog must not lose sight of the fact that without the fiesta, there would have been no Sinulog. In fact, the Sinulog refers to the steps of a dance performed in honor of the Santo Niño. Sinulog is just an adjunct, not the main thing.

It is therefore very insensitive and irresponsible for traffic authorities to miss that point. And no amount of good intentions can repair that shortcoming. Only a traffic plan that considers the fiesta Masses for the Santo Niño ahead of the Sinulog can the failing be overcome.