TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines- — Belying reports days ago that Pope Francis will celebrate his Papal Mass at the DZR Airport in this city, Father Amadeo Alvero said there is no definite site yet for it until now.
Alvero, director of Social Communications of the Archdiocese of Palo, said, “The airport is one of two proposed sites, the other is in Candahug of Palo town. But the Vatican has not decided yet and it will announce its decision later this month.”
During the recent archdiocese’s press conference about Pope Francis visit to Leyte in January next year, Alvero said, “The media should have limitations,” as he appealed to reporters to avoid or eliminate negative reports.
“The pope is very humble,” said Alvero, adding that the relevance of the papal visit is the message that “we (Yolanda victims) are not alone.”
When asked if the pope will visit the bunkhouses of Yolanda survivors, Alvero said, “It is up to the pope if he will do that, but certainly he is eager to meet with them although there are security concerns that he might meet instead their representatives.”
On security, the archdiocese has no idea yet on the number of personnel to secure Pope Francis, but Alvero said the Presidential Security Group and the local police had already assured the Church that they will provide security to the pope, even when the latter decides to visit the bunkhouses and tent cities of the Yolanda victims.
In Tacloban and Palo, boarding houses, hotels and inns are now fully booked with advance reservations from pilgrims and tourists who will come to witness Pope Francis’s visit. “More than a million are expected to come,” said Alvero, denoting the situation as a security headache.
Palo town Mayor Matin Petilla, when asked of the possibility that the Papal Mass will be held at the airport instead of the site in her town that her office had proposed, said: “There’s no problem with that. It’s all about faith and our religious devotion.”
Petilla added, “There’s no politics involved,” as she belied public perception of an underlying political clash between the Petilla family, which endorsed for a Mass in her town, and the Romualdez family that pushed for a Mass at the Tacloban airport.
In the case of Yolanda survivors living in bunkhouses at Candahug, Petilla said that, with or without the Pope’s visit, they shall be transferred to permanent dwellings because her administration wanted to provide them with decent housing.
The reports that the bunkhouses’ dwellers will be moved out of their present site because of the pope’s visit are not true, as these are just meant “to destroy my administration and my family,” said the mayor.
Petilla said that 20 families out of about 300, living at the Candahug bunkhouses, were already relocated to their permanent houses at the 10-hectare site at sitio Caluogan in Barangay San Jose of her town.
Concrete roads, water and electricity are being put up in this permanent housing site, where the houses varied from a 3-room unit, for a family of five and more, to a 2-room unit for those family of four or less, Petilla added. (FREEMAN)