The nearly year long pilgrimage to the Our Lady of Good Voyage and Peace is the center of the city’s tourism. Although the city boasts of several scenic spots, mystical caves and other attractions, the religious icon remains its best crowd drawer. Norberto Mendoza, the current chairman of the Shrine Coordinating Committee, seeks to improve the city’s tourism by promoting Antipolo as a “pilgrim-friendly” city.
 Mendoza showed in a recent interview how the local government and the church are working hand in hand to improve the city’s tourism. The "pilgrim-friendly" makeover includes a museum, a public park or the Rizal Park, an amphitheater, and a spacious parking area. When asked about the risk of commercializing the devotion to the Lady of Good Voyage and Peace, Mr. Mendoza countered that making the pilgrimage the focus of the campaign prevents it from being commercialized.
Fighting tooth and nail for a share of the tourism pie are the ambulant vendors. They sell a motley of goods ranging from glutinous rice cakes, scapulars and Chinese Feng Shui charms. Angela de la Cruz, a co-worker, was immediately subjected to their unique brand of hospitality during a recent trip to the church. They rushed to her in the same way manic fans mob their favorite celebrities but instead of autographs they asked for her commitment to buy their sweets and homemade goods. It was overwhelming for her, bordering on scary. To round off her trip nicely, a brawl threatened to erupt minutes from her arrival.
Curiosity got the best of de la Cruz and she gleefully joined the thickening crowd. Ate Charing, a friendly vendor, gamely explained two groups of vendors were hotly contesting for parking customers. They usher cars to designated parking spaces which are “protected” public spaces rather than actual parking areas. Their gentleman’s agreement is if the car turns left, the group holding fort on the left is entitled to that customer and vice versa. One group supposedly violated this agreement and hell threatened to break loose right in front of the church gates.
Apart from the turf war, these groups aligned themselves with some of the vendors selling foodstuffs. A customer who avails of the parking space and lookout service is coerced into buying from the group’s allied vendors.
 The mafia-like operation and other guerilla tactics of the ambulant vendors place them at odds with some locals, the church and the local government. It comes as no surprise that they are not included in the pilgrim-friendly transformation of the city. Mang Bert, a local volunteer who helps direct traffic and keep the peace around the Church area, sympathizes with the plight of the vendors about to be dislodged but admits he is relieved the unruly bunch will no longer trouble the tourists.
There is a fine line between hope and despair. Some have the luxury or composure to entrust their anxieties to a higher power. Others rely on persuasion, tricks and even coercion to live another day. The vendors outside the gates of Antipolo Church are closest to the Nuestra Senora geographically but the look of dejection in their eyes betrays their distance from the hope she inspires from the tourists. |
