Barbed wires on Ayala Bridge for ‘Traslacion’ a bad idea?

MANILA, Philippines — In its bid to make the “Traslacion” on Jan. 9 peaceful and orderly, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) will be implementing some security measures that, according to some netizens, may do more harm than good.

Organizers earlier announced that the annual procession of the Black Nazarene image would deviate from its usual route of crossing Jones Bridge. This year, it would go across Ayala Bridge upon the recommendation of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

To ensure the safety of devotees, NCRPO chief Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas said that barbed wires would be placed on the beams of the bridge to prevent anyone from climbing its metal frames.

“This is to prevent accidents from happening. Youngsters particularly climb up the bridge [so they could get on the andas]. They may fall [on] the people [below] and many more could get hurt,” he told reporters on Saturday.

Netizens, however, said the barbed wires would put participants at greater risk.

“You can’t prevent people from pushing [each other] due to the sheer volume of attendees. They would not get injured [due to] the usual shoving, but they would definitely get hurt [because of] the barbed wires,” someone commented.

“It would be ironic since it was the police [who] earlier asked the public not to bring in any pointed objects, even barbecue sticks, and here they are bringing in barbed wires,” another one said.

More than 11,000 policemen would be deployed along the traslacion route, of which 1,500 would be at the front of the procession to clear a path—similar to what was done during the Thanksgiving procession last week that went around Quiapo Church in a record 1 hour and 39 minutes.