Church leaders organizing this year’s grand procession of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo warned politicians, especially those running in the May elections, not to take advantage of the event, saying any propaganda material found along the route would be removed.
“We discourage them from turning the event into (their) campaign,” said Msgr. Hernando Coronel, rector and parish priest of Quiapo church.
His statement was apparently in anticipation of politicians whose streamers or posters “greeting” the community crop up in the streets during special occasions, from Christmas to fiestas, even on Valentine’s Day or graduation season.
Coronel also discouraged the Nazarene devotees themselves from wearing shirts that bear the names of politicians.
Bracing themselves for another massive, chaotic gathering, which last year left two people dead and over 600 injured, authorities are drawing from the strategies used in the 2015 papal visit and Apec summit to manage this year’s “traslacion.”
More than 6,000 policemen, military personnel and traffic constables are being deployed for the annual Catholic ritual that parades the image of the cross-bearing Christ around central Manila, where past appeals for order and discipline among predominantly male devotees generally went unheeded.
Still, the rector of Quiapo church, home of the 16th-century icon, renewed the call for everyone’s safety. “We all want to touch the Black Nazarene, so learn to respect your fellow devotees and give way,” Coronel said in a press briefing Tuesday.
The traslacion commemorates the statue’s transfer from a church in Intramuros to Quiapo church on Jan. 9, 1767. It may be considered the single, biggest religious feast in the country, drawing millions who believe in the Black Nazarene’s miraculous powers.
Coronel said organizers were taking their cue from last year’s big events, mainly the visit of Pope Francis and the country’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and would tackle the procession’s security concerns using a “whole-of-society” approach.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Emerson Carlos said his agency would assign around 1,680 personnel along the seven-kilometer route which will not deviate from the one followed last year, when the procession took 19 hours to finish.
The MMDA teams will be activated starting Thursday afternoon for the procession of Black Nazarene replicas.
On Friday, the annual “pahalik” will start 8 a.m. at Quirino Grandstand where devotees can kiss and touch the Black Nazarene image. The traslacion starts at 5:30 a.m. Saturday to bring the image from the grandstand back to Quiapo church.
Like in the past traslacion, the police called on the devotees not to use backpacks and just keep their belongings in transparent bags. They also advised against wearing ball caps and using umbrellas with pointed tips.
Security forces will particularly be on the lookout for drunk participants and will pull them out of the crowds. With reports from Julie M. Aurelio and Inquirer Research