The intense heat brought by the weather phenomenon El Niño has resulted in drought and low agricultural yield in many places in the Philippines since the onset of summer on 22 March.

In Oslob, Cebu, the parish of the La Inmaculada Concepcion and its parishioners recently held a religious ritual to pray for rain. Called Ligo sa Señor, the ritual involving the Santo Niño was done on 4 May during the 194th anniversary of groundbreaking of Oslob Church.

The book, Balaanong Bahandi: Sacred Treasures of the Archdiocese of Cebu, however puts 10 May as the groundbreaking date as indicated in a seal on the church’s pediment. Pedro Galende’s Angels in Stone: Augustinian Churches in the Philippines had it on 4 May. Oslob’s church was completed in 1847 with Fr. Juan de Aragones serving as the first parish priest (1848-1854).

In the said ritual, the image of the Señor Santo Niño is carried on an andas (shoulder-borne platform) from the church to the sea and immersed in sea water, praying for rain.

The prayer, a gozos or devotional song, “Pangaliya sa Ulan (Exhortation for Rain)” is said during the religious activity.

In the gozos, the faithful sing: “Kon ulan ang pangayoon/ug Imong pagadugayon/dadad-on ka sa baybayon/ug sa dagat pasalumon/ug dayon nila makuha/ang ulan nga gitinguha pangarap/Kanamo malooy Ka unta/nga Kanimo nangilaba (If the rain is requested/and the request is delayed,/they will bring you to the seashore/and will be submerged./And after, they will get/the rain they requested./Have mercy on us/who are pleading to you).”

This ritual, a case of religious syncretism and is a normal occurrence, is one of many examples that precolonial traditions endure to this day, albeit with changes.

Historian Rolando Borrinaga said this practice in Cebu was observed during the Miguel Lopez de Legazpi’s expedition in 1565.

“In a sense, they must have had a pre-Spanish diwata (deity) that could perform the task, but which image was substituted by the Santo Niño,” he said.

He added that apart from Cebu, there are no similar recorded tradition in Eastern Visayas, but “as for Panay, an Augustinian friar had been known to endorse a babaylan woman who can induce the rain to fall.”