Nazarene march: 1 dead, 1,200 hurt

MANILA, Philippines - A man died while over 1,200 were injured and treated for various conditions during yesterday’s Black Nazarene procession that attracted over a million devotees, a prelude to a much larger turnout expected during the visit of Pope Francis next week.

During the procession, devotees traditionally compete with each other to hold the ropes that pull the carriage carrying the Black Nazarene image that they believe to be miraculous.

Devotee Renato Gurion, 44, of Sampaloc, Manila suffered a heart attack and died on arrival at the Manila Doctors Hospital at 8 a.m., according to the rescue team of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

Gurion, a member of the group Hijos del Nazareno that escorts the image during the procession, reportedly had the heart attack as the carriage was making its way out of the grounds of the Quirino Grandstand.

The crush of devotees prevented Gurion’s colleagues from immediately bringing him down from the carriage and rushing him to the hospital.

“All of us are at fault,” Manila’s anti-disaster unit head Johnny Yu told The STAR. “It’s about time that we help each other to educate the people about this event.”

The Philippine Red Cross reported that as of 5 p.m.   yesterday, its personnel and volunteers treated at least 1,238 people for various conditions, including cuts, bruises, hypertension and dizziness.

Despite these incidents, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and the Philippine Red Cross observed that the devotees were “orderly” this year compared to last year.

“Last year, the devotees became too fanatic and even tried to remove the shipping containers that we placed at MacArthur Bridge. This year, there was no report of such incident,” Estrada said.

But Philippine Red Cross secretary-general Gwendolyn Pang noted that there was no fatality during last year’s feast. The Red Cross also observed that more devotees sought medical help this year.

‘Mini-papal event’

The city government of Manila recorded a 400-percent increase in crowd turnout, with devotees mostly coming from classes D and E.

The intermittent rains that began at midnight Friday did not dampen the turnout of devotees as there were more than half a million people at Quirino Grandstand at 6 a.m., according to the Manila Police District (MPD).

MPD deputy director for operation Senior Superintendent Joel Colonel said that during the midnight mass celebrated by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, there were about 200,0000 present at the Quirino Grandstand.

By 6 a.m. just before the start of the procession, the crowd grew to 550,000, excluding those who were staying at the side of the road of the grandstand. The procession only started moving at 8 a.m.

About 5,000 policemen were deployed for the daylong procession, with 1,000 military personnel on standby, police Senior Superintendent Jigs Coronel said.

“This is like a mini-papal event in scope,” Coronel added. “We’ll be able to put to a test our security plans, crowd control, anti-crime measures, emergency and medical response.”

The wooden statue of Christ, crowned with thorns, is believed to have been brought from Mexico to Manila on a galleon in 1606 by Spanish missionaries.

The ship that carried it caught fire, but the charred statue survived and was named the Black Nazarene. Some believe the statue’s survival from fires, earthquakes and even intense bombings during World War II is a testament to its mystical powers. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Evelyn Macairan, Sheila Crisostomo, AP