By Restituto Cayubit PALO, Leyte – Palo Guindangan Hill, a popular tourist destination and pilgrimage site of this town, has been closed to the public due to the threat posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a report from the office of the mayor said here Wednesday. The Cross at Guinhangdan Hill in the town of Palo in Leyte province
(CBCP News via Rolando O. Borrinaga / MANILA BULLETIN) Palo Mayor Frances Ann B. Petilla told The Manila Bulletin that Guinhangdan Hill was temporarily closed to pilgrimages this Holy Week due to the COVID-9 scare. In a public advisory posted at the entrance, a notice said: “This is to inform the public that Guinhangdan Hill will be temporarily closed for pilgrimage on April 5-12, 2020, per executive order number 12 which encourage the community to avoid attending and organizing events for any public gatherings that tend to draw huge number of crowds to contain the potential spread of COVID-19.” Petilla said that Guinhangdan Hill was a favorite pilgrimage site of Roman Catholic devotees in Leyte and Samar in the observance of Holy Week.  It has been observed in the past years that more or less 30,000 pilgrims visit or climb the Hill on Good Friday alone for religious rites or sacrifices and to offer flowers or light candles. She added that Guinhangdan Hill, otherwise known as “Hill 522”, has been declared by the town of Palo as a municipal park under the institutional category and developed into all-in destination making the hill a historical, tourism and religious, site “rolled into one.” The hill has historical significance and offers a panoramic view of the municipality and the site where American Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed in Leyte Gulf on October 20, 1944, in the town of Palo. Fierce fighting was fought in this hill between the Allied Forces and the Japanese Imperial Army last World War II. The two-day fighting which lasted from October 20-21, 1944 claimed the lives of at least three American and about fifty Japanese soldiers.