4 million devotees joined 21-hour traslacion — police
MANILA, Philippines — Around four million devotees endured the heat and battled exhaustion during the annual procession of the Black Nazarene, figures from the police showed.
The initial estimate was lower than the five million expected by Quiapo Church officials.
Director Guillermo Eleazar, National Capital Region Police Office chief, announced the figure after the andas or the carriage carrying the suffering image of Jesus Christ returned to Quiapo Church in Manila.
The statue’s journey from the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park to its home church lasted for 21 hours and seven minutes. The procession—locally called “traslacion”—started a little past 5 a.m. on Wednesday and ended past 2 a.m. on Thursday.
Last year’s traslacion took around 22 hours to finish.
NCRPO, which handled security for the annual event, said no casualty or major untoward incident was recorded.
“Based on our assessment, it’s better now than before. With the result of peace and order situation and with the result of injuries and casualties, this year it was more orderly compared to last time but we want to improve on it more for Traslacion 2020,” Eleazar said.
The Philippine Red Cross said it had given medical assistance to 1,613 individuals, 747 of whom had their blood pressure monitored.
Another 603 people were listed as being attended to for “minor cases” or “breathing difficulty, fainting, puncture, abrasion, bruises, laceration, toothache, nosebleed, sprain, hypoglycaemia, swelling, muscle spasm, body weakness and dizziness.”
The yearly event attracts millions of attendees as the sacred image of Jesus Christ is believed to heal sicknesses, grant requests and help those in need. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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