TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan, Philippines—Eight images of Mary from various churches in northern Luzon joined Our Lady of Piat for the first Marian Voyage for Peace here last week.Organizers—Cagayan North Convention Visitors Bureau (CNCVB), a non-profit alliance of business owners in the province, together with the Department of Tourism (DoT) and the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao—attribute the success of the pilgrimage to Filipinos’ deep-rooted faith. “This is the first time, and everybody is excited,” said Bless Diwa, tourism regional director of Cagayan Valley. Marian devotees were allowed access to Our Lady of Immaculate Conception of Malolos, Bulacan, Our Lady of Manaoag from Pangasinan, Our Lady of Charity from Agoo, La Union, and Our Lady of Piat. The images were made available for adoration in 10 different churches within the City of Tuguegarao. Scheduled to coincide with the celebration of the 426th Founding Anniversary of Cagayan Province and the feast day of Our Lady of Piat on July 2, the pilgrimage saw both local and foreign tourists flock to Cagayan Valley to see the 18 well preserved Spanish architectural churches in the province. Among them were the San Jacinto de Ermita Church, which was constructed in 1604 and served as headquarters by the American soldiers during World War 2, and the San Pablo Church in San Pablo town built in 1624, making it the oldest church in the province. The idea, said Joselito Luna, president of the CNCVB, came up some three years ago. “We were asked to come up with a signature event that would really depict Cagayan and it has to do something with what is the stronghold of this area,” he said. Religion, particularly the Cagayanos strong belief towards Our Lady of Piat, turned out to be the “stronghold” of the province, he said. “A lot of a Cagayanos are very religious because of Our Lady of Piat and there are a lot of devotees, there are a lot of pilgrims and that was the idea that came out,” Luna said. Tuguegarao residents fondly call Our Lady of Piat the Queen of the Cagayan Valley Region. Monsignor Benjamin Lasam, parish priest of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Tuguegarao City, explained that Cagayanos have a “deep-rooted devotion” toward the Blessed Virgin Mary. “From early history of our people, they found in the image of the blessed mother the complete symbol of their relationship to a mother,” Lasam said. He added that the visitation of the nine Marian images to Tuguegarao City is to “seek the help of her son to give the peace that Christ gave to his apostles.” “Our leaders are in conflict with their own interest, our people have their own conflict because of concerns about their livelihood, about their way of life. Our families are also in conflict because of disunity among members of the family,” Lasam said. “There is that special mission for the blessed mother to come over here to make the people through their experience of faith promote peace themselves,” he added. “This is the first time in the history of Tuguegarao that the 10 Marian images came to this place and we are very, very happy about it,” said Edelmira Fugaban, a devotee of Our Lady of Piat. “Instead of going to their places, they came to us here in Tuguegarao. It’s really a god-sent [event],” Fugaban said. Likewise, youth groups also participated actively in the event and even organized a Marian Youth Vigil held Sunday evening at the St. Peter’s Parish grounds. “The vicariate of Tuguegarao [invited] some youth members of each parish to join us [and] to commune with us in prayer,” said Aries Gonzales, Youth Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao. “We want to re-intensify their faith [toward] Mary [and] the involvement of Mary in their life,” Gonzales added. Initially, organizers intended to invite Marian images from all over the country. However, it turned into a logistical nightmare so they had to settle with images from northern Luzon for their first year, CNCVB’s Luna said. Still, the organizers are determined to invite more images to bring in more devotees in the years to come, Luna added. Tourism department’s Diwa said her office and the other organizers of the Marian Vigil for Peace in Tuguegarao intend to make the Marian Vigil for Peace an annual event. “We have to sustain it [and] we have to tell it to the people that this is one event that will really invite tourists to come to our place,” she said. Youth coordinator Gonzales agreed. “This should be an annual event because I really see the involvement, not only the youth but also the community,” he said. Last year, the regional tourism office recorded some 679,000 tourists, 34,000 of whom were foreign or balikbayan tourists. With the Marian Voyage for Peace in Tuguegarao City, the tourism board estimates a 10- to 20-percent increase in tourist arrivals, Diwa said. She added that all hotels in Tuguegarao City were fully booked during the adoration of the nine Marian images which began last June 19. | 
