Leyte town to pursue landmark cross improvement

PALO, Leyte, April 7 (PNA) – The local government will push through with the improvement of the town’s 50-year-old cross despite the opposition of some groups.

Palo Mayor Remedios Petilla said the improvement is needed to make the cross more visible and the site more convenient to pilgrims.

“The cross is small that it cannot even be seen in nearby Guindapunan village. I just want the cross to be seen all around Palo town,” Petilla added.

The mayor said "there's nothing wrong" in making improvement to the cross on top of Guinhangdan Hill since it was built in the 1990s and not a heritage structure as claimed by some groups.

“We will not destroy the cross. We will make it bigger and taller and make the place well lighted at night. Others may have been sending wrong information, but before we embark on the project, we carefully studied the plan,” Petilla said.

The local government will also put up view decks, comfort rooms, and wider stairs.

Guinhangdan Hill is a favorite pilgrimage site every annual celebration of the Holy Week, with thousands of Roman Catholic devotees climbing 522 steps to reach the cross to offer prayers.

Fr. Mark Ivo Velasquez, of the Archdiocese of Palo's Commission on Culture and Heritage, thanked the local government for its concern on pilgrimage sites such as the Guindaghan Hill.

“I would like to congratulate the local government of Palo for their efforts to help improve, beautify and preserve these monuments, which are part of our collective soul and identity as people of Palo,” Velasquez said.

In the past few weeks, concerned Catholic residents launched the “Save Palo Cross” online campaign to stop the plan.

The old cross atop the Guinhangdan Hill was built in the early 1960s, according to the opposing group. It is said to be one of the most concrete manifestation of the Catholic zeal in the town after the Jesuits arrived to bring Christianity to its residents in 1596 and after the town survived the ravages of World War II in the 1940s.

Palo, just 12 kilometers north of Tacloban, is a third class town and home to the offices of the ecclesiastical government of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palo. (PNA)
LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA