Bocaue, Bulacan- The local government of this town headed by Mayor Joni Villanueva-Tugna and parishioners of St. Martin of Tours solemnly remember the “Pagoda Tragedy” as they conducted a Holy Mass on Monday administered by its Parish priest Monsignor Albert Suatengco.
The Holy Mass was held at 6:30 yesterday morning in honor of the 266 lives who perished on the night of July 2, 1993. The pagoda carrying the Holy Cross and image of the town’s patron saint conducting the traditional annual fluvial novena together with an estimated 800 devotees sank in the middle of the Bocaue River between Barangay Bunlo and Barangay Bambang.
The Bocaue Rescue Team with the supervision of Mayor Joni led the offering of floating flowers at the exact site where the Pagoda sank.
The lady mayor said that a monument of the “Mahal Na Poon Ng Krus Sa Wawa” to be called “Bantayog Ng Mga Martir Ng Pagoda” will be built beside the river near where the tragedy happened.
On July 2, 1993 more or less at around 8:15 p.m., the pagoda carrying the Holy Cross and image of the town’s patron saint with an estimated 800 devotees sank while conducting fluvial novena in the Bocaue River.
Witnesses claimed that a wayward sky rocket (kwitis) flew towards the direction of the pagoda forcing many of its participants to transfer on one side of the pagoda causing it to tilt and eventually sink. –Photos by ERICK SILVERIO