TALISAY CITY, Cebu—Talisay City should have been adorned in colorful banners and flowers with the smell of lechon (roasted pig) permeating throughout the city today, October 15, 2020.
The Halad Inasal festival for the feast day of the Santa Teresa de Avila, the patron of the city, had been a much-awaited festival for the city’s constituents.
But the city had to forego the festivities due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which claimed the lives of 98 Talisaynons in the past seven months.
Although sad that the usual celebration couldn’t be done this year, Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas expressed hope in his Fiesta message released on Thursday morning.
“I know it’s difficult to be in a celebratory mood with everything that has been going in the world. The year 2020 has really been difficult,” said the mayor. “But with everything that has gone wrong, I believe God has still blessed us with many things that we can celebrate about.”
The city suffered through a rise in cases on June and July 2020, and by October, the total confirmed cases reached 979.
But as of October 13, the number of active cases dropped to 12.
Read: No new cases recorded in Talisay City on Oct. 13
“We thank God for family, for friends and for all our lost loved ones, we thank God for accepting them into heaven,” Gullas said.
The mayor urged the Talisaynons to pray that the pandemic would soon end and encouraged them to put their faith on God in these trying times.
“Hopefully in God’s time, we will get through this. We will continually pray for that. We will continue to pray that all this is nearing the end. At this difficult time, all we can do is trust the man above,” said Gullas.
/bmjo