PROCESSION
MANILA, JANUARY
12,
2012 (INQUIRER) By Jaymee Gamil, Jeannette
I. Andrade - After 22 grueling hours, it left a spent army of devotees slumped
on the pavement, Church leaders pondering what had become of their flock, and
the government patting itself on the back for thwarting an alleged terrorist
plot.
This year's procession of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo entered the books as
the longest in the history of the 17th century icon—thanks, or no thanks, to
some broken wheels and the refusal of diehard believers to take shortcuts.
The statue was paraded starting at Quirino Grandstand in Manila at 8 a.m. on
Monday and returned to its home at Quiapo Church at 6:11 a.m. Tuesday, inching
its way through a swarm of pilgrims down a 5-kilometer route in the city's
central enclaves.
Organizers mainly traced the unprecedented delay to the Nazarene's carriage
stalling early in the procession, when two of its wheels broke under the sheer
crush of devotees trying to mount it. By late afternoon, all the wheels had been
damaged and devotees could only move the carriage by lifting it off the ground.
The procession could have been cut short by at least seven hours had the
devotees agreed late Monday night to skip parts of the original route and take a
shorter way to Quiapo, as suggested by police and parish officials.
But the predominantly male crowd angrily rejected the suggestion. For about
an hour, at the corner of Palanca and Villalobos Streets, the religious ritual
morphed into a tug of war—with the Nazarene caught in the middle—between the
marshals who favored the shortcut and the diehard devotees who wanted to stick
to tradition.
About 200,000 devotees—out of the estimated 8 million who flocked to Manila
for the procession—welcomed the statue's arrival at Quiapo Church. Many were
forced to wait it out and sleep on the sidewalks and storefronts around the
church.
Aquino thanks troops
President Benigno Aquino III, who on Sunday warned that terrorists were
targeting the feast and ordered tighter security in the area, yesterday thanked
the police, the military and the intelligence community "for our successful
operation."
"Also laudable was the way our people followed our instructions to ensure the
safety of all," Mr. Aquino said in a speech during the installation ceremony at
Villamor Air Base for the new Philippine Air Force chief, Lieutenant General
Lauro Catalino de la Cruz.
"Like the preparations we showed in the past two days, you can expect that
the government would remain on the alert every minute to watch the welfare,
right and livelihood of every Filipino," he said.
In a briefing, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the government
continued to pursue a group believed to be composed of "bomb experts" based in
Mindanao.
He did not give further details, except to say that this group may have been
forced to "go underground" because of the warning issued by the President on the
eve of the Quiapo procession.
Lacierda also defended the security precautions taken by the government,
including the decision to ask telecommunication companies to shut down mobile
phone signals in the procession area lest terrorists use phones as triggering
devices for bombs.
"This is a situation where we believe that the government acted prudently,
acted promptly on credible threats," he told reporters.
Asked whether the government would resort to the same measures again,
Lacierda said it would depend "on what is presented to us or to the intelligence
community."
As to criticisms that the government overreacted to the supposed terror
threat, the Palace spokesperson said: "Would you rather have casualties? We did
what we have decided as prudent at that point. And a statement (like that), that
it was an overreaction, is always 'hindsight 20-20.'"
'Excess fanaticism'
A Catholic priest in charge of the procession admitted that the devotees
displayed an "excess of fanaticism that needs to be corrected."
"It's our task to slowly form and educate the faithful about their devotion
and the right way of expressing such devotion that will not harm themselves and
others," said Msgr. Clemente Ignacio, rector of the Minor Basilica of the Black
Nazarene in Quiapo.
"We admit that there were elements or excess of fanaticism that needs to be
corrected but we also saw from them yesterday the seed of their deepening
devotion," Ignacio said in a phone interview.
"I understand their very strong desire to touch the Black Nazarene. That's
their way of expressing their faith," he said, referring to devotees who risked
injury just to get near the image.
Over Church-run Radio Veritas, Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani Jr.
said the Church must make the devotees realize that it was only through deep
faith—and not through towels or handkerchiefs—that they could touch Jesus
Christ.
"The Church must focus on catechesis because it's not good that people are
getting hurt during the procession," Bacani said.
"They must be taught that they don't need to jostle their way up to the
carriage just to touch the image of the Black Nazarene. It's not the touch of
the hand that matters but touching the Lord through their faith."
No alert downgrade
Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Tuesday clarified that the government
had "not downgraded" the terror alert level.
"We're continuing the operations to locate (the terror suspects). We could
not be sure yet," he said.
On Monday, Gazmin said security agents were tracking six to nine members of
an "extremist group" from Mindanao who arrived in Metro Manila in August last
year possibly to stage a bomb attack.
"This is not an ordinary threat because the suspects were sighted and they
have the intention (to stage a terrorist attack)," the defense secretary said,
without giving details about the suspects' identities, affiliation or
capabilities.
"Our men are following up leads … so that even after the festivities (in
Quiapo) the operations are ongoing to capture the suspects," he said. "We will
not stop until we capture these suspects."
Also on Tuesday, the Philippine National Police said it was maintaining its
full alert status in Metro Manila.
The PNP spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr., said the
National Capital Region Police Office would continue exercising security
precautions in "vital installations and economic key points," including
government offices, business districts, train stations, bus terminals and other
crowded places.
But Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo said he believed that the threat had
passed following the raids conducted by police on suspected terrorist lairs on
Sunday and Monday. The raids, though, yielded negative results.
"The downgrading of the alert status will formally come from the PNP, but
because the (feast) is over, we don't want the citizens to be alarmed by the
prevailing high alert," he said.
Robredo said various PNP units raided suspected terrorist safe houses in
Angono, Rizal province; Culiat, Quezon City; and Baseco in Manila.
He also explained that previous intelligence reports indicating a possible
terror threat were not specific to the Black Nazarene procession, but that
recent assessments made by government experts pointed to the procession as the
most likely target of an attack.
Most elaborate
PASSION AND SERENITY Hundreds of thousands of maroon-clad Black
Nazarene devotees pass by the greens of the Intramuros Golf Course on Monday
night during the procession that lasted 22 hours. At the back is the skyline of
Manila's Ermita district. LYN RILLON
Mr. Aquino's warning sparked one of the most elaborate security deployments
for an event in the capital in recent years. About 15,000 policemen, backed by
hundreds of army troops, secured the procession route, while Air Force
helicopters stood by.
Police estimated 8 million people attended the feast centered on the
cross-bearing statue of Jesus Christ, which is believed to have healing powers.
Devotees waving handkerchiefs and towels let out shouts of "Viva!" as the
statue was finally brought inside the church at the end of the grueling
procession.
The Philippine Red Cross said it had treated 569 devotees as of Tuesday
morning for minor injuries, exhaustion or dehydration.
The Manila Police District (MPD) said the only security issues it encountered
during the procession came from a handful of pickpockets—and an abandoned,
suspicious looking box left outside Quiapo Church on Monday morning. The box
later turned out to contain nothing but kalamay (a rice delicacy).
Save for four incidents of petty theft, the country's biggest religious
procession was generally crime-free, said the MPD spokesperson, Chief Inspector
Erwin Margarejo. With reports from Jocelyn R. Uy and
Christine O. Avendaño, DJ Yap, and Dona Z. Pazzibugan; and AP
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
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