The Peñafrancia Fluvial Procession will be held Saturday night (Sept. 19) instead of its usual late-afternoon schedule as organizers wait for the Naga River to rise enough to safely carry the Pagoda bearing the images of Our Lady of Peñafrancia and El Divino Rostro.
It will be the first time the annual religious procession will be held after dark.
Fr. Francis Tordilla, director of the Cáceres Commission on Communications, said holding the procession at the usual 5 p.m. schedule could cause the Pagoda and accompanying boats to run aground because of the shallow river.
The revised program begins with a Pontifical Mass at the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral from 3:30 to 5 p.m., followed by the foot procession of the images at 6:30 p.m.
The images are expected to reach Danlugan, near the Tabuco Bridge, at about 8:30 p.m. and be loaded onto the Pagoda at 9 p.m.
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The pagoda will then travel down the river to Dagsaan, a journey expected to take about 1½ hours. A concluding Mass at the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Peñafrancia and National Shrine is scheduled for around 11 p.m.
Mayor Leni Robredo said the Joint Operations Center of the Archdiocese of Cáceres, Naga City government and other stakeholders decided to wait for the high tide after assessing the river conditions.
Weather specialist Mike Padua of Typhoon2000 said the low river level was partly due to below-normal rainfall this month.
Only 93.5 millimeters of rain was recorded in Naga from Sept. 1 to 19, compared with the usual 330 mm for the entire month of September, Padua said.
Road closures along the procession route will begin at 1 p.m., according to the Emergency Operations Center-Incident Management Team.