Manila cops on full alert for Nazarene

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila city government and the police are on full alert to secure the devotees of the Black Nazarene during the scheduled traslacion on Jan. 9,  Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said yesterday.

Estrada said the Manila Police District is on alert after receiving an intelligence report that members of a Islamist terrorist group might create trouble.

“The police are on full alert. The threat is not serious, but we are not taking the intelligence report lightly. All the department heads of the city government will be there to monitor the traslacion,” Estrada said.

‎Estrada said city officials have met with leaders of the Muslim community in Quiapo to coordinate preparations for this year’s traslacion to assure that the participants are safe.

“Combined personnel of the different departments of the city government, such as the Task Force Clean up composed of the Department of Public Services (DPS), engineering department, the Manila Action and Special Assignment (MASA), ‎the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), MPD will be there to make the traslacion peaceful, orderly and clean,” Estrada said.

The Quiapo Church executive committee is expecting at least 5 million devotees of the Black Nazarene to participate in the traslacion. 

He also ordered Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau (MTPB) chief Dennis Alcoreza and MASA chief Jimmy de Pedro to conduct patrol operations since Friday up to the actual traslacion on Jan. 9 to ensure the smooth flow of the procession.  

National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Guillermo Eleazar said they already have security in place for the traslacion.

Eleazar yesterday conducted an aerial and walk-around inspection of the six-kilomter route of the procession.

More than 9,000 security personnel will be deployed for this year’s procession of the Black Nazarene.

All districts of the NCRPO will deploy additional personnel, aside from the 2,000 from the Manila Police District. 

The personnel would be deployed in each of the 10 segments of the route. 

Vendors would be cleared from the streets for the procession that is expected to take at least 15 hours and will follow the same routes as last year.

Meanwhile, Sen. Nancy Binay expressed belief that the miraculous Black Nazarene brings her luck.

Binay urged the millions of devotees of the Black Nazarene to help make the feast peaceful and orderly.

“I hope no one will be injured,” she said in Filipino.

More young devotees

Quiapo Church pastoral vicar Fr. Daniel Voltaire Hui said that more young people are becoming devotees of the more than 400-year-old image of the Black Nazarene, which many believe is miraculous as many have given testimonies that through the Black Nazarene their prayers have been answered.

“The number of young devotees of the Black Nazarene is increasing and based on this observation, their number might already be 50 percent,” said Hui.

By “young devotees” he is referring to those who are 13 years old up to the late 30s.

These young devotees might have just started off as being companions of their parents, who are devotees and went to hear mass at the Quiapo Church and attended processions. But as they grow older, they begin to decide on their own that they also want to become devotees.

Environmentalists belonging to the EcoWaste Coalition yesterday urged candidates in the May 2019 elections to honor the sanctity of the traslacion and avoid using it as a platform for premature campaigning.

EcoWaste said candidates should not take advantage of the millions upon millions of Catholic faithful who are expected at the feast of the Black Nazarene on Jan. 9 to promote their candidacies.

Daniel Alejandre, Zero Waste Campaigner of the EcoWaste Coalition, said, “We urge our politicians to show respect to the time-honored commemoration of the traslacion by not putting up tarpaulins and distributing leaflets and other promotional materials, which will only turn into ugly litter. Please restrain yourselves. Traslacion is not the time to draw attention to yourselves.”

Quoting Commission on Elections spokesman James Jimenez, the group said, “We appeal to the sense of delicadeza of national and local poll candidates not to turn the traslacion into a campaign event. Please do not take advantage of the loopholes in the premature campaigning law to plug your candidacy during the mammoth feast of the Black Nazarene. Premature campaigning is wrong and well-meaning politicians should not engage in it.”

The EcoWaste Coalition, a waste and pollution watch group, is worried that premature campaigning will only worsen the habitual littering that has tainted the annual re-enactment of the traslacion for many years.

Some 385 tons of mixed garbage were hauled from Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park to the Quiapo district during the traditional “Pahalik” and the six-kilometer procession in 2018, compared to the 341 tons collected in 2017, according to the Manila City Government.  –  With Rhodina Villanueva, Romina Cabrera, Cecille Suerte Felipe