Look where the ‘palaboy’ Sto. Niño (wandering Holy Child) has ended up.
It’s only been a week since the boyish-looking icon, a casually-dressed version of the traditional Sto. Niño de Cebu, turned up in barangay Mactan, where three children said they discovered it by the beach.
Last Wednesday, a barangay councilor placed it in a glass case and mounted it in a makeshift chapel of coconut lumber and hollow blocks.
The front of the glass case is open so that people can touch the icon and place donations at its feet.
The outdoor altar is surrounded by shanties near the shore.
Hundreds of pious devotees come to see and pray before the icon, sometimes leaving gifts of flowers, money and candy. They are moved by awe or curiosity by accounts spread by word of mouth and the media that the icon “talked” to the children and begged them not to throw it away.
The “palaboy Sto. Niño” was the original creation of Laguna sculptor Fred Baldemor in the 1970s, a modeling that has found its way into mainstream devotion, said Cebu iconographer Louie Nacorda.
“It was supposed to honor the street children, a group that was just beginning to be noticed in the ‘70s. Now, fiberglass versions of this are dressed so opulently that the term palaboy (vagabond) hardly applies anymore,” Nacorda explained.
He said the popularity of this version of the Sto. Niño has to do with the strong identification of devotees with a street child or ‘batang yagit.’
During the novena and annual feast of the Sto. Niño at the Basilica del Sto. Niño, several devotees are seen carrying the ‘palaboy’ Sto. Niño usually dressed in a camisa de chino (long-sleeved cotton shirt) and long pants.
This is a far cry from the red-and-gold royal cape of the traditional Sto. Niño image which is patterned after the model enthroned in a marble chapel in the Basilica, the original image given by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan to Cebu’s Queen Juana in 1521.
But Nacorda said he would rather see the ‘palaboy’ Sto. Niño dressed in rugged and ragged clothes “for better effect” and to reflect the poverty it originally represents.
The Mactan parish priest Fr. Benjie Balsamo, who is looking into the incident, has cautioned people against hastily believing that a “miracle” has taken place.
Last Thursday, he interviewed 4-year-old KJ, one of the three children, and asked him if the Sto. Niño really speak aloud.
The child replied in Cebuano, “No, we just lied about it,” before breaking away to resume playing. The priest said he would make a report of his findings to the Cebu Archdiocese even as a local psychologist said that children that age are capable of lying to please a grownup. She suggested letting the children undergo play therapy under professional guidance to be freed from the stress of many spectators and be able to clearly tell the truth.
Adults continue to arrive in droves at the outdoor altar. They light candles and pray, and sometimes leave money bills, coins, biscuits, burgers, lollipops or oranges before the icon.
There were no large crowds last Saturday, a day after typhoon Basyang struck.
Marivic Aquilala, 37, was there to venerate the icon.
“Nakadungog man gud ko nga naa diay ingon niini dinhi. Nianhi ko aron mag-ampo nga tagaan unta ko ang akong pamilya og maayong panglawas. (I heard about this discovery of this Sto. Niño. So I came here to pray that the Lord will grant me and my family good health),” said Alquilala who has four children aged 12, 9, 7 and 2.
Last week people all the way from municipalities of Dalaguete, Alcoy, Sibonga, Medellin and Bogo City went to the chapel in sitio Sea Breeze to see the ‘palaboy’ Sto. Niño.
Yesterday, only residents of Mandaue City and nearby villages of Lapu-Lapu were around, bringing flowers and candles.
Vendors have appeared, selling bottled water, good candles, flowers and food at the site.
Brian Garcia, 40, a resident of Lapu-Lapu, said he earned about P500 daily from selling “ice buko” last week.
But yesterday, he oly earned only P100 reflecting the drop in the number of visitors.
Mayor Paz Radaza has instructed barangay tanods and policemen to post themselves at the site for crowd control.
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