For true believers, touching the statue alone can produce miracles.

Government appeal to skip the procession amid terrorist threats falls on deaf ears as hundreds of thousands flock to Quiapo to raise their plea at annual event.  PNews photos by Hazel Vasquez.

Unstoppable

Multitude survives procession of the Black Nazarene

By Beting Laygo Dolor

Manila Bureau Editor

MANILA – For the city of Manila as well as the national government, the annual procession of the Black Nazarene was a study in paranoia.

No less than President Benigno Aquino III asked the faithful to avoid attending the event due to what he said was a terrorist threat. But millions came anyway.

One of the oddest moves was to instruct the country’s telecommunications companies – Smart, Globe and Sun – to block all signals within the immediate vicinity of the Rizal Park and Quiapo Church. The reason offered was that a bomb could be detonated with a cell phone signal.

This seemed like a pretty bad idea, since the use of cell phones as detonators can only be done under strict conditions. It is not possible to detonate an explosive device with a random cell phone.

I had been hired as consultant by a publishing company just last week. Monday, Jan. 9, was only my third day at work. I might as well have stayed home.

The cell phone blackout lasted the entire day, and ended past 9 p.m. Because of this, very little work was accomplished.

To think that I had to take a roundabout way to get to the office near the Manila Cathedral.

From my new home in Bicutan, Paranaque, to Intramuros, Manila, the ride normally took about 40 minutes. On the day of the Black Nazarene, it took all of two and a half hours. All vehicular traffic from Taft Avenue near the corner of T.M. Kalaw had been blocked. Since I only got that far by cab, I was forced to take creative means to get to Intramuros.

I took a jeep that would have gone to Divisoria. The route it took was via Port Area, and I ended up having to walk much of the way.

On the way, I saw parents carrying infants as young as a few days old all wanting to touch the image of the Nazarene. For true believers, touching the statue alone can produce miracles.

The small office of some 10 employees was nearly empty. Everyone who came in had their own horror stories to tell. Almost everyone had to walk long distances to get there. Someone said, “I’m a Catholic, but I’m not taking part in that circus.” To this, a couple said “Amen.”

In previous years, half of the main thoroughfare of Quiapo remained open to traffic. This time, it was totally closed. We would later learn that more than 400 devotees were injured, but nothing serious. A 16-year-old boy was caught stealing cell phones and was beaten up before being surrendered to the police.

To be honest, I had intended to take part of the procession, even briefly. I was even wearing a maroon shirt, the color worn by followers of the Black Nazarene. No, I was not about to ask for a miracle. I only wanted to reaffirm my ties to the Roman Catholic Church into which I was born. Also to give thanks to the good things that had been happening to me lately.

As we prepared to head for home at around 10:00 pm, one of the guys at the office told me, “Too bad you weren’t able to join the procession.”

“I’ll just go to Quiapo Church later this week,” I told him. I don’t need to be in the company of two or three million people to kneel before my Maker, say a prayer, and then buy the best hopia in town there in Plaza Miranda, right across the church.