Queen of Marinduque

"Carrion said the criticisms against his administration are only caused by politics and he blamed Rep. Carmencita Reyes for them. Her family, who has ruled Marinduque for four decades, does not want anybody else to run the province. But what have they done for the province during all those years? he asked rhetorically. Marinduque is still a fourth-class province.

“Congresswoman Reyes calls herself the ‘Queen of Marinduque,’” he said..." (As I See It, Neal Cruz, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jan. 22, 2008)

“…Today, Longinus’ mock-decapitation, the most important feature of the tradition in Boac, no longer takes place on Easter Sunday following the morning mass, but rather in the context of a Saturday-night passion play or sinakulo. This shift places his death chronologically before the risen Christ appears, a somewhat jarring occurrence inasmuch as the other events associated with the passion of Christ are played out in a sequence timed to replicate their actual occurrence in historical time.

"This move was spearheaded by the current Provincial Governor, Carmencita Reyes, who as one of Imelda Marcos’ original inner circle of so-called “Blue Ladies” during the Marcos era, is known for her strong personality and desire to shape the island’s traditions in ways that she feels best serves the island’s long-term strategic, economic, and cultural interests.

"Integrating a mock-execution into the final evening sinakulo may have enhanced its dramatic effectiveness, but it has also contributed to the radical transformation of a folk tradition by knocking it off its moorings." (Beheading Longinus in the ‘Heart of the Philippines’: Spirituality, Theatre, Community, and Politics in Marinduque’s Moriones Festival” By William Peterson , Monash University, 2005).