Basilan, Visayas folk pray for rain

AS government officials failed to provide ways to ease the effects of the El Niño phenomenon in remote provinces, Catholics in the province of Basilan and in the islands in the Visayas decided to resort to prayers for rain.

Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad of the Prelature of Isabela said members of a parish in his diocese will conduct an “Oratio Imperata” starting Friday to ask God to end the dry spell in the province.

Jumoad also appealed to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Social Welfare and Development to extend assistance to the families who have been bearing the brunt of the drought.

In the Visayas Like, the Catholic Church in Iloilo City asked the faithful to pray for rain as the El Niño phenomenon starts to dry wells and affect the city’s water supply.

In Cebu, the Catholic Church also resorted to prayers to battle the dry spell.

“This coming Sunday we will be coming out with an Oratio Imperata,” said Monsignor Achilles Dakay, spokesman of the Cebu archdiocese.

The government’s Task Force El Niño already reported that the dry spell has affected some 20,177 farmer-families in Western Visayas.

Read the Philippine Star and Manila Bulletin reports