UST forms human cross for Guinness Book record

MANILA, Philippines -  An estimated 24,000 students attempted to rewrite the Guinness Book of Records by forming the largest human cross at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) yesterday. Watch full video

Fr. Winston Cabading, vice rector for religious affairs, said the students wanted to make the Guinness record in time for the yearlong quadricentennial celebration of UST.

“It was the students who requested that we also do something for the Guinness Book of World Records so we thought on Ash Wednesday we could attempt the biggest human cross,” he said.

Cabading said they decided to form a human cross because the cross is a symbol of the tree of life for them.

“This is not only an attempt to form the biggest human cross, this is also a spiritual event for each one of us because it is the beginning of Lent,” he said.

Cabading said it was also the perfect way to express that the Thomasian community is pro-life.

“Therefore, the prayer of the Church for the protection of life will signify the oneness of the Thomasian community in the mission of the Church to protect and preserve life,” he said.

UST hired the services of the accounting firm SGV & Co. to document the event and a helicopter to get an aerial shot of the Dominican cross.

Out of 43,000 students, 24,000 were to be part of the historic event since that was the capacity of the open field. There were representatives from the faculty and from the administration.

Eighteen entry gates were placed for the volunteers to pass through.

They swiped their identification cards so their names would be recorded and their presence counted.

After the event, SGV would add the numbers and announce the official number of participants in a few days.