CEBU CITY — About P10 million has been spent on preparations for a nationwide celebration in honor of a newly proclaimed Filipino saint, Pedro Calungsod, at the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu City.

The expenses for the site development include grading, backfilling and compacting, said Maria Teresa Mempin, SM City Cebu mall manager and SM Prime Holdings representative.

The target date for the completion of construction work is October 30, she added. Work on the 27-hectare area is on schedule, despite the occasional heavy rains in the past weeks.

Mempin said at the meeting that Hans Sy, SM Prime Holdings Inc. president, visited the site last Saturday to inspect it.

The official image of San Pedro Calungsod is expected to arrive in Manila today, Wednesday, to start the Duaw Nasud or the visit to dioceses in the Luzon area on Friday, October 26.

Fr. Charles Jayme, the custodian of the image, said Tuesday that he and the San Pedro image are taking the 12:30 p.m. Cathay Pacific flight from Rome, Italy.

Pebbles

The canonization rites of Calungsod, the Visayan catechist and martyr, and six other saints was led by Pope Benedict XVI last Sunday at St. Peter’s Square and attracted more than 80,000 pilgrims from different parts of the world.

Calungsod is a teenage catechist who was part of the Jesuit mission in the Marianas Islands with Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores. They were killed one after another with spears and a cutlass by the natives of Tumhon village in Guam.

Their bodies were cut up and thrown into the sea, which is also the reason that there were no first-class relics presented during the canonization mass.

Fr. Brian Brigoli, vice chairman for the Commission on Cultural Heritage of the Church, said there were only pebbles and sand from the beach where the bodies of the martyrs were disposed of by the natives.

These third-class relics are now kept at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Blessed Calungsod and the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, in a gold-plated chest.

Visits

Brigoli explained that first-class relics are parts of the body of the saint, preferably the bones, while second-class relics are any items that the saint used such as vestments or a habit. Third-class relics are items that were touched by the saint.

Calungsod was beatified in March 2000, while San Vitores was beatified in October 1985.

In Manila, the first site visit will be at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), the Pontifical University of the Philippines, in Sampaloc, Manila. The delegation will then proceed to the Diocese of Parañaque.

On Tuesday, committee on venue on the preparations for the thanksgiving mass vice chairman Fr. Brian Brigoli said the templete work is now 70 percent completed.

He added that the remaining work would be more on providing and working on the furnishings such as the chairs, altar and lecterns. The furniture is currently prepared in different shops.

The target date for the completion of the entire area before other equipment are brought in is by the first week of November.

Engr. Paul Dy, Cebu Contractors’ Association Inc. (CCA) president, told reporters that his group is augmenting the work of SM Prime Holdings by providing the heavy equipment needed.

Workers

Also, a two-day assessment test or practical examination for operators administered by Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) for about 30 skilled personnel began at the SRP site on Tuesday.

The skilled workers who passed would receive a national certificate and be able to work in the area.

The heavy equipment being used are on loan from the Construction Management and Development Foundation (CMDF).

Brigoli said a donor for the fireworks that would be set off after the thanksgiving mass contacted the group and asked for an area to set up their stocks.

Engr. Edgar Watin, a committee member, said the group has been receiving donations of filling materials but they still need prayers.

“Every week, we are always given new concerns of things that are needed,” he said.

The group was also told yesterday that they would need 10,000 chairs for the major participants of the event. (BAP/Sun.Star Cebu)