PALO Leyte- With the Vatican now confirming on the visit of Pope Francis, local officials of this town are now all agog and expressed hope that the Holy Father will eventually hold his Mass on this historic town.
Palo town Mayor Remedios “Matin” Petilla said that with the huge of people, some could be coming outside the region and from other countries, their town has available areas to accommodate the faithful expected to see and attend the Holy Father saying the Mass. Petilla said that the 18 hectare Government Center, particularly along the Boy Scout Monument, could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people during the Pope’s visit.
The Vatican had already announced that the Pope will be coming to the Philippines on January 15 to 19, 2015 and expressed his interest to see victims of supertyphoon Yolanda. Eastern Visayas was the hardest hit area of the world’s strongest typhoon to make landfall on November 8, 2013.
Petilla said that if Palo would be chosen as the site for the Papal Mass, the families living in bunk houses along the area would be moved out and transferred to their permanent resettlement.
Aside from the Government Center located at Barangay Candahug, the other sites being considered for the Papal Mass are the port area and an area near the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, both in Tacloban, the “ground zero” of Yolanda. Mayor Petilla said that her hope that Palo would be chosen is based on reason that the town is where the cathedral is located. It was learned that the Pope has expressed his intention to visit the cathedral that sustained major damages due to the supertyphoon.
Also, it is in their town that a building for the poor and orphans are to be constructed of which the Pope. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
