All preparations are underway for the celebration of Naga’s 74th Charter anniversary this month and the 2022 Peñafrancia fiesta in September, this year.
Based on the calendar of activities prepared by the City Government of Naga (CGN), this year’s Charter Day will be celebrated from June 12 to 19, a mass vaccination against Covid-19 will be conducted at Plaza Rizal as kick-off event and as part of the city’s 124th Araw ng Kasarinlan celebration. The activity is expected to immunize at least 500 individuals from 5-year-old children to senior citizens.
Individuals who opted to have their first or second booster shots of anti-Covid-19 vaccines may queue at the plaza like the ones who have not yet taken either their first or second jab.
A health caravan which offers different health services free of charge will also be established in the area in collaboration with the Bicol Medical Center. Patients can avail the caravan’s free consultation and medicines including other services like progestin subdermal implant insertion, adolescent nutrition counselling, cervical cancer screening, new born screening, and hearing screening for children and adults.
Allen Reondanga, head of the City Events, Protocol, and Public Information Office (CEPPIO), said that this year the city will mark the occasion by way of extending services to the Nagueños and commending those who partnered with the LGU in the conduct of public service.
A formal awarding of recognition to nearly 400 barangay healthcare workers, barangay tanods, vaccinators and other volunteers who took the frontline as collaborators of the local government in pursuing its various Covid-19 responses also highlights this year’s anniversary celebration. The barangay personnel and volunteers compose the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) who are tasked, among others, to monitor and assist Covid-19 patients in their respective areas. There will be no mayoral awardees this year.
He said: “This is the time that we have to recognize and give honor to the people who bravely went out of their comfort zones to work with their fellow frontliners if only to serve others when Covid-19 was at its height.”
Scores of bulastogan stalls will be established at Evangelista Street near Plaza Rizal as permanent site of the street-food area presently operating inside the plaza. The plan to construct and set up the stalls at Evangelista Street and relocate the stores from plaza has been deferred in previous years due to threats of Covid-19 transmission.
Reondanga said that on June 13, an updated citizen’s charter of the LGU will be presented to Mayor Nelson Legacion by City Hall department heads and chief of offices. The charter provides basic information about the LGU and its services that constituents need to know like how frontline services transactions are facilitated and expeditiously delivered.
An agricultural fair will be opened at Kinastillohan Street on June 13 to 16. On the 17th, a charter anniversary trade fair will be showcased at the Robinsons Place Naga.
On June 15, Legacion will officially re-launch the weekly People’s Day wherein the mayor along with the heads of frontline offices personally meets with the constituents in an open venue at the Naga City People’s Hall to address their respective concerns.
On June 16, a mass wedding organized by the city civil registry office that will be officiated by the mayor will be conducted. The solemnization of marriages, which will take place at the Plaza Rizal, targets at least 74 couples. No solemnization fees will be charged. Interested parties may coordinate with the office of the local civil registrar.
On the 17th, there will be a mass tree planting that will be held at the 74th site of the Forest in Our Midst (FOM) program in the city’s urban area that has to be determined yet by the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (City ENRO). On the following day (June 18), a job fair which will offer 800 local and overseas employment will reel off at the Robinsons Place Naga.
A concert of local bands will perform in the evening of June 17 and 18 at the Plaza Quezon and on certain dates within the anniversary celebration.
In the afternoon of June 18, members of the Team Naga will take their oath as newly elected officials of the city with Vice President Leni Robredo as administering officer. The swearing-in ceremony shall be conducted at the Plaza Quezon where incoming city officials traditionally took their oath since 1948.
This year’s charter anniversary will be capped with simple celebration of the birth anniversary of Gat Jose P. Rizal at the Plaza Rizal on June 19, this year.
A glance at the city government’s preparation for the Peñafrancia fiesta celebration:
An executive order naming the heads of different event and support committees was already signed by Legacion.
For the conduct of the Miss Bicolandia Beauty Pageant, the executive order designates City Councilor Sonny Rañola as the competition’s focal person being the chairman of pageant’s executive committee while City Councilor Elmer Baldemoro who will be given a portfolio position in the city government as he bows out of office this month was named chairman of civic and float parade committee.
City Councilor Joselito S.A. del Rosario will head the committee that will run the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts parade including the DBC-DXMC competition while incoming city councilor and retired Police General Omar Buenafe will spearhead the committee that supervises the regional military parade competition.
CEPPIO chief Allen Reondanga will handle the Voyadores festival while City Budget Officer Frank Mendoza will head the accreditation committee for the activities and events organized by the private groups.
Legacion said that the city’s decision to pursue the conduct of civic and religious events during this year’s Peñafrancia fiesta has already been coordinated officially with the Archdioceses of Caceres.
He clarified, however, that the events will be conducted if the city will remain on Alert Level 1 or Alert Level 2 status. Under Alert Level 1, the public, vaccinated or unvaccinated, can participate in any of the civic and religious events while under Alert Level 2, it is only the vaccinated persons who can participate in the Peñafrancia fiesta activities.
Not a single outdoor event or activity is permitted in a place declared with a higher alert level status. (By Jason B. Neola)
