DUBAI: With only 11,000 tickets allotted for the Filipino community in its parish and some 14,500 Filipinos having registered for the much-awaited Papal Mass on Feb. 5, St. Mary’s Church has called for restraint as it started releasing the tickets last night Monday, Jan. 28, taking measures to avoid confusion and chaos.
“Nananawagan kami na maging kalmado tayo para di naman po mahirapan ang mga volunteers,” said Cecille Santos, FilCom Secretary and head of the volunteer group overseeing the release of the tickets.
“Sinisikap naming na mabigyan lahat kahit yung mga humabol nang tapos na ang deadline,” she said.
(We are calling for retraint. Let’s keep calm to make it less difficult for the volunteers. We are trying our best to give tickets to everyone, even those who were not able to beat the registration deadline.)
Santos said they received word last night that the parish council will add more tickets.
The deadline to register for the free tickets was Jan. 20.
According to Santos, the quota allotted by the overall papal visit committee for the Filipino community within jurisdiction of St. Mary’s parish was 11,000 tickets – 3,000 inside the Zayed Sports City stadium where the mass will be held; and 8,000 outside the stadium.
Zayed Sports City stadium has a capacity of 125,000.
A total of 14,500 Filipinos in Dubai and the Northern Emirates were able to register for the tickets before deadline, Santos said.
“After nun, marami pang humabol na magka-tiket,” said Santos. (Many more tried to get tickets after deadline.)
She said thousands of Filipinos went to St. Mary’s Church last night to get their tickets, including those who were registered. There were only 40 volunteers, Santos said. “Nagdagsaan talaga ang mga tao kahit yung hindi registered,” she said.
Registered devotees were given registration numbers for them to show to the when redeeming their free tickets, which also comes with free transportation tickets, said Santos.
Schedule of ticket release is as follows:
• Monday to Thursday 6pm to 10pm
• Friday (Last day) 8am to 10pm
(Video provided by FilCom)
