19 crucifixions set in Pampanga

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – There were only three crosses on Golgotha when Jesus was crucified over 2,000 years ago, but there will be at least 19 crucifixions that will take place in this town to promote the observance of Good Friday and to attract tourists to attend the town’s “cultural ritual.”

The large number of crucifixions comes as a result of the city government, for the first time, taking the role of overall coordinator for three barangays, not just the famous San Pedro Cutud, where actual crucifixions take place every Good Friday.

“Yes, we are packaging all the three crucifixion sites for thousands of tourists expected to come here,” said city government administrator Ferdinand Caylao during the launching of Maleldo, a contracted Kapampangan word referring to Holy Week, at the Heroes Hall the other day.

The event came on the heels of Mayor Oscar Rodriguez’s approval of Executive Order CMO 2008-02, creating the Maleldo working committee.

The order noted the “magnitude of the (Good Friday) event and its heritage component,” as it cited the need for the city government to “recognize the need to provide the necessary interventions.”

Apart from the San Pedro Cutud crucifixions, which have been a favorite of tourists and international media on Good Fridays, the city government is asking tourists to also witness crucifixions in Barangays Sta. Lucia and San Juan.

“These crucifixions have been scheduled so that tourists can witness all of them one after the other on Good Friday,” said Ching Pangilinan, public relations officer of the city government.

Barangay San Juan chairman Allan David admitted that compared to Sta. Lucia, the Good Friday rites in his village will be “simpler.”

“We have fewer characters than Sta. Lucia. We also patterned our crucifixions on Sta. Lucia,” he said at the press conference.

Chairman Rene Roldan of Sta. Lucia said the rites in his area will be the reenactment of the Stations of the Cross with costumed characters portraying Jesus, Mary, the apostles, Pontius Pilate, and Judas.

“The peculiar thing with our events is that Judas will be hanged while riding on a chariot,” Roldan said.

In Barangay Cutud – where rituals will be longer with the portrayal of the entire Via Crucis or the Way of the Cross - two residents have agreed to take on the role of Dimas and Hestas, the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus on Calvary.

“No one in the past ever took these roles because local folk did not relish the idea of being thieves, although we always had a Judas. Now we have Dimas and Hestas,” said Remigio de la Cruz, director of the Sta. Lucia activity.

While the list of volunteers for crucifixion remains open, at least 19 actual crucifixions are already expected in the three barangays.

David said he expects six in San Juan, while Roldan said he expects at least seven in Sta. Lucia, including a few women.

In San Pedro Cutud, at least 12 Kristos are expected to be crucified, although organizers could not yet say whether painter Ruben Enaje would again act as the main Kristo.