Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, large public gatherings are a serious health risk. During the Holy Week, parish priests resort to virtual masses for the faithful.
One such parish is St. Augustine of Hippo Parish in Bacong, Negros Oriental. Parish priest Msgr. Julius Perpetuo S. Heruela livestreams his masses using a web cam linked to a laptop which is connected wirelessly to a PLDT Prepaid WiFi unit.
The video is then aired on his Facebook page, much like a watch party. The setup is powered by the 4G LTE service of Smart Communications. Heruela adds that 9 other parishes in the Diocese of Dumaguete are holding online Masses in the same way.
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“We’re very happy that we are able to help people observe Holy Week rites online amid quarantine conditions,” said Alfredo S. Panlilio, Smart President and CEO and Chief Revenue Officer of PLDT.
“The case of Msgr. Heruela is particularly gratifying because he is doing it in Bacong, a 4th class municipality, about 650 kilometers south of Metro Manila. This shows that we have really made progress in expanding the reach of our high-speed LTE service to more and more areas of the country,” Panlilio added.
