Procession proceeds amid tight security

A massive crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics joined a raucous procession of a life-size statue of Jesus Christ under extra-tight security Tuesday.

Although the police and military said they have not monitored any specific threat, they deployed more than 6,000 personnel, including snipers and bomb squads backed by a surveillance helicopter and drones, to secure the annual procession of the wooden Black Nazarene along Manila’s streets.

By nightfall, nearly 1,000 devotees had been treated by Red Cross volunteers, mostly for minor injuries and exhaustion.

Authorities imposed a gun ban, cellphone signals were jammed sporadically in the vicinity of the procession and a team of bomb experts walked sniffer dogs along the route ahead of the crowd. Concrete barriers blocked the route.

Security officials said they were also concerned with pos- sible stampedes in the dawn-to-midnight event that national police chief Ronald dela Rosa said drew about 2.6 million devotees.

Mobs of devotees in maroon shirts dangerously squeezed their way into the tight pack of humanity around a carriage carrying the Jesus statue.

They threw small towels at volunteers on the carriage, which was being pulled by ropes, to wipe parts of the cross and the statue in the belief that the Nazarene’s powers would cure ailments and foster good health and fortune.

Ronald Malaguinio, a 38-yearold worker, carried a small replica of the Nazarene for several kilometers from his home in Tondo to join the procession and pray for a son recovering from a heart ailment.

The spectacle reflects the unique brand of Catholicism, which includes folk superstitions, in Asia’s largest Catholic nation.