Pinoy Kristo now on his 22nd year of being crucified

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Twenty-two years since he was first crucified on Good Friday, commercial painter Ruben Enaje will reprise his role as “Kristo” in the traditional Via Crucis or Stations of the Cross in Barangay San Pedro Cutud here before an expected crowd of 30,000 foreign and local visitors.

“This will be the 22nd year of his crucifixion,” Remigio de la Cruz, director of the Via Crucis told The STAR.

De la Cruz said that with the help of the city government headed by Mayor Oscar Rodriguez, this year’s Via Crucis in San Pedro Cutud would be different. The activities will start at 12 noon and end with the actual crucifixion at about 3 p.m., which is believed to be the actual time that Jesus Christ died on the cross.

“Another thing is that Golgotha, or the place of crucifixion, has been elevated by another four feet so everybody would have a good view of what’s going to happen there,” he said.

This year, Judas will also be riding a chariot and for the first time in three years there will be characters to play the roles of the two thieves, Hestas and Barabbas.

“No one wanted to take the two roles since those who used to portray them retired three years ago. I thought this was because local folk are sensitive to being attached to thievery, as Hestas and Barabbas were said to be robbers,” De la Cruz explained.

But when two youths agreed to play Hestas and Barabbas this Good Friday, De la Cruz found out the reason why the characters were shunned in the past.

“The roles require the characters to carry a wooden post while walking toward Golgotha and onlookers are allowed to push or beat them and they often end up being more badly bruised than the flagellants,” he explained. “This Good Friday, the audience will not be allowed to touch our new Hestas and Barabbas.”

In past press conferences, Enaje, who has vowed to have himself crucified at least up to 2010, admitted that while he is a Catholic, he does not go to church regularly. He said the crucifixion was a vow to atone for his sins and those of his family and a manifestation of his gratitude to God for sparing his life in an accident in Tarlac some 22 years ago.

He said he was painting the third floor section of a building in Tarlac when he fell, but he survived unharmed. A local paper also quoted him recently as saying, “I’m doing this to show to the whole world that they must not lose hope, and there is a God who always guides us to righteousness.”

As of yesterday, five other local male residents have enlisted for actual crucifixions, but De la Cruz said applications would be accepted until the morning of Good Friday.