January 21, 2019
ASIA / PACIFIC
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
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MIGHTY MARCH IN MANILA. A massive crowd of Filipino Roman Catholic devotees follow the carriage
of the Black Nazarene during a raucous procession in Manila, the Philippines. Tens of thousands of mostly bare-
foot Filipino Catholics joined the annual procession of a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ to celebrate the
Feast of the Black Nazarene. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Huge crowd of Filipino Catholics
gathers amid terror fears
By Jim Gomez
The Associated Press
ANILA, The Philippines — A
mammoth crowd of mostly
barefoot Filipino Catholics
joined a raucous procession of a centuries-
old black statue of Jesus Christ despite
terrorism fears and amid the president’s
attacks on the Catholic faith.
Police said they had not monitored any
specific threat but that they deployed more
than 9,000 police and troops, including
bomb squads backed by a surveillance
helicopter, to secure the annual procession
of the wooden Black Nazarene along
Manila’s streets. Police had expected up to
5 million people to join the dawn-to-
midnight procession.
More than 800,000 devotees attended a
mass and the first few hours of the
procession, national police director Gen.
Oscar Albayalde said. Tens of thousands of
others joined in as one of Asia’s biggest
religious events unfolded.
Authorities imposed a gun and liquor
ban and cellphone signals were jammed in
the vicinity of the procession. Flights over
the area were prohibited along with sailing
in nearby Manila Bay and along a key river
where special police and coast guard forces
guarded bridges that the mass of devotees
passed through.
Despite the threats and the tropical
heat, mobs of devotees in maroon shirts
dangerously squeezed their way into the
tight pack of humanity around a carriage
carrying the life-size statue of Christ. They
threw small towels at volunteers on the
carriage, which was being pulled by ropes,
to wipe parts of the cross and the statue in
the belief that the Nazarene’s powers cure
ailments and ensure good health and a
better life.
“I’m praying so I can walk again and be
cured of depression,” said Pochi Maximo,
who held on to a wheeled walking device as
she waited along a road with her daughter
for the procession to pass.
The 58-year-old housewife said she has
joined the religious gathering since child-
hood as part of a family tradition and
persisted to be at the procession despite
debilitating knee and spine ailments that
were diagnosed last year, along with
diabetes, that drove her into pits of
depression.
Another devotee, Ryan de Vera, a
29-year-old former finance officer at a local
bank, said he squeezed his way through
the crowd to touch the hand of the Black
Nazarene, which he credited for the
recovery of his father from prostate cancer.
M
After the dangerous feat, he was pushed
uncontrollably aside by the mass of
humanity to a roadside, where his left foot
sustained a deep wound caused by a sharp
metal piece of debris.
After getting treatment at a first-aid
station, he limped back to the crowd, still
barefoot and smiling. By nightfall, more
than 1,000 devotees had been treated by
Red Cross volunteers for minor injuries,
exhaustion, and high blood pressure.
A tourist from Denmark, Jens
Mikhelsen, said the intense religious
outpouring was important because it drew
Filipino Catholics closer to their faith and
sparked hope.
“It’s very, very impressive ... It’s a bit
away from my way of thinking but I
respect the people,” said the 75-year-old
engineer, who is a Protestant.
Such religious passion was under the
spotlight
amid
President
Rodrigo
Duterte’s stepped-up attacks on the
Catholic church, faith, and bishops, who
have criticized the thousands of killings
under his anti-drug crackdown. In June,
Duterte sparked outrage among many
Catholics when he called god “stupid” and
later questioned the basic tenets of the
Catholic faith. He offered to immediately
resign if anybody can prove that god exists.
Crowned with thorns and bearing a
cross, the Nazarene statue is believed to
have been brought from Mexico to Manila
on a galleon in 1606 by Spanish mis-
sionaries. The ship that carried it caught
fire, but the charred statue survived. Some
believe the statue’s endurance, from fires
and earthquakes through the centuries
and intense bombings during World War
II, is a testament to its powers.
The spectacle reflects the unique brand
of Catholicism, which includes folk
superstitions, in Asia’s largest Catholic
nation. Dozens of Filipinos have them-
selves nailed to crosses on Good Friday in
another tradition to emulate Christ’s
suffering that draws huge crowds and
tourists each year.
Police forces were placed on full alert
ahead of the religious gathering amid mili-
tary offensives against Muslim militants
aligned with the Islamic State group who
have been blamed for a spate of bombings
and other attacks in the volatile south.
Previously, suspected Muslim militants
remotely detonated a bomb that killed two
people and wounded about 30 others near
the entrance of a shopping mall in
southern Cotabato city as people did
last-minute shopping ahead of New Year’s
Eve celebrations.
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