Vendors look forward to improved sales this Palm Sunday

Couple Nasing Lobiano, 71, and Anecita Lobiano, 70, hope that they will have better sales of crosses made of palm fronds on Palm Sunday tomorrow, April2. | Doris Bongcac

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — Couple Nasing Lobiano, 71, and Anecita Lobiano, 70, traveled for about 3 hours from their hometown in Tabogon town in northern Cebu to get to Mandaue City, Saturday dawn, April 1. 

They are among the vendors, who now gather at the Mandaue City Heritage Park to sell palm fronds on Palm Sunday. 

Anecita said she had been travelling to Mandaue City to take advantage of the presence of churchgoers at the National Shrine of St. Joseph on Palm Sunday since she was a child. 

“Mao na gyud ni ang akong naandan sa bata pa ko. Kuyog ko pirmi sa akong mama aron maninda diri. Usahay maninda pud mig kandila,” she said.

(That is what I have been doing since I was a kid. I would accompany my mama to sell here. Sometimes, we also sell candles.)

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Nasing Lobiano of Tabogon town in northern Cebu says he and his wife arrive at dawn today, April 1, in Mandaue City to prepare their palm fronds for the churchgoers tomorrow, which is Palm Sunday. | Doris Bongcac

Optimistic vendors from Tabogon

Anecita expressed optimism that she would be able to recover losses that she had incurred in the previous years. 

She said that she and her husband were unable to come to Mandaue City and sell when the pandemic hit.

Last year, she again managed to travel to the city with her husband to sell crosses made of palm fronds, but they only earned a small amount because of the rain.

“Ampo lang mi nga makahalin na mi karon tuiga,” she said.

(We are praying that we can sell [many crosses made of palm fronds] this year.)

The couple said they took a bus ride to Mandaue City at dawn on Saturday and paid P150 each for their fare. They paid another P100 for their cargo.

They now stay at the heritage park with the other vendors who came from others parts of Cebu. 

They sell their palm fronds between P20 to P50 each.

Ancita said they hope to sell everything before they travel back to Tabogon town in northern Cebu on Monday. 

Emily Waper, 62, of Carcar City also hopes to have better sales, which will be enough to cover her expenses to get here to sell her palm fronds. | Doris Bongcac

Vendors from Carcar

Just like the Lobiano couple, Emily Waper, 62, is also hopeful to recover this year her losses during the pandemic.

Waper of Barangay Can-asujan in Carcar City, said she spent a capital of P1,000 for the palm fronds that she would be selling and another P400 for the truck ride that brought her and some of her neighbors to Mandaue City. 

They will take the same truck ride on their trip back home Sunday night.

Waper arrived at the heritage park Friday night.

Vendors of palm fronds at the Mandaue Heritage Park prepare for tomorrow’s churchgoers of the National Shrine of St. Joseph in Mandaue City. | Doris Bongcac

On Saturday, she and three of her neighbors, tried to sell palm fronds on the sidewalks near the national shrine but they were warned from doing so by personnel of the Traffic Enforcement Unit of Mandaue (TEAM) to avoid obstructing traffic in the area. 

Waper is hopeful that they would already be allowed to transfer to the sidewalks on Sunday.

“Kinahanglan mi mosugat sa mga manimbahay aron makahalin,” she said.

(We need to meet the churchgoers so that we can sell [our palm fronds].)

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