Nazareno feast: January 9 is special non-working day in Manila

Devotees carry a replica of the Black Nazarene during the traditional blessing outside the Quiapo Church in Manila on  January 4, 2024. —File photo from the Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has declared the Feast of the Black Nazarene on January 9 a special non-working day in Manila.

Proclamation No. 766, released on Friday, aims to ensure the orderly procession of devotees and to facilitate the traffic flow.

READ: Nazareno 2025: Full deployment, gun ban, road closures on Jan. 8 – MPD

Earlier in the day, the Manila Police District (MPD) announced that its officers would be fully deployed starting on January 8 and that a gun ban and road closures would be enforced ahead of the feast.

“As of now, this is a week-long activity. There are already many activities, especially in the Quiapo area, continuously. But we have what we call skeletal deployment. Come January 8, in the evening, it will be in full deployment,” the MPD director, Brigadier General Arnold Thomas, Ibay said in Filipino.

To aid law enforcement, the Armed Forces of the Philippines also committed to deploying 1,000 of its troops from the Army, the Navy, the Marines, and the Air Force.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Coast Guard will enforce a “no-sail zone” within a one-kilometer radius from the Quirino Grandstand from noon on January 6 to noon on January 10.