Official Church count: 6,113,598 joined traslacion

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 6,113,598 people joined the traslacion during the Feast of the Black Nazarene last Tuesday, Quiapo Church officials said.

The terminal report issued yesterday by the Quiapo Church Command Post gave final counts of 3,227,090 devotees who attended the actual procession, 1,947,508 churchgoers who attended the hourly mass at the church and 939,000 spectators at the Quirino Grandstand, for an accumulated crowd of 6,113,598.

“The figures listed are accumulative count of all records from the start of the day, until the return of the procession to the Quiapo Church,” church officials said.

The Quiapo Church administration also recorded a total of 751 people who required medical attention for the duration of the event.

At least 51 of them were neurology-related cases, 40 were trauma cases, 11 were respiratory cases, 11 were cardiology cases and two were gastrointestinal cases.

Approximately 636 were tagged as other cases.

No safety and security and peace and order incidents were reported.

During the mass at Quiapo Church, while awaiting the return of the image of the Black Nazarene, a group of devotees was seen breaking into the barriers as they returned the rope that snapped off from the image’s carriage.

Armando Ramos, one of the marshals at the exit of Quiapo Church along Quezon Boulevard, told reporters that a senior citizen and her grandchild were injured.

“There was a senior citizen and her grandson who got stuck, so we Hijos de Nazareno worked together to get the old woman and the child in,” Ramos said in Filipino.

He explained that the rope, one of two used in pulling the carriage, snapped due to the force of the devotees, which they did not expect.

The rope used in pulling the Black Nazarene snapped while the image was traveling through Arlegui Street cor. Quezon Boulevard, according to Quiapo Church officials.

Last Tuesday’s traslacion – the first after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic – clocked a travel time of 14 hours, 59 minutes and 10 seconds from the procession that started at Quirino Grandstand to the return of the image to Quiapo Church, making it the fastest in over a decade.

After the procession from Quirino Grandstand started at 4:45 a.m. last Tuesday, the image of the Black Nazarene arrived back at Quiapo Church at 7:44 p.m.

The previous shortest traslacion was in 2020, with 16 and a half hours to complete, while the longest procession of the religious image was in 2012 that took 22 hours to arrive at Plaza Miranda because the wheels of the carriage as well as the rope were broken.

Nazareno 2024 adviser Alex Irasga yesterday said that this year was “the fastest in the history of the traslacion and it is because of the new andas (carriage of the Black Nazarene) that was less heavy and easier to push.”

“It would not topple because there are people on all sides of the carriage who keep it steady. It was stable. It was strong and heavy yet, it was able to move fast and that is why the procession only took 15 hours,” Irasga said.

He credited the new design of the carriage that allowed them to secure the image inside a metal and laminated tempered glass case, measuring one inch thick, with only the back part of the cross exposed and can be touched by the devotees.

Carriage maker Sarao Motors also installed lights that allowed the devotees to see the image even at night. It also had close circuit television cameras for security and a sound system.

Twenty members of the Hijos de Nazareno rode the andas and blocked devotees from attempting to climb.

Despite the reminders issued by the Quiapo Church, however, many devotees were seen still climbing up the carriage, but this was just a “fraction” of the those who went up the andas in previous years.

Irasga said they already anticipated the attempts of some devotees to scramble up the carriage and touch the cross, so they placed three braces to strengthen the cross.

Manila Police District (MPD) public information office chief Maj. Philipp Ines told The STAR that one of the contributing factors to the fast return was the improved carriage design. – Evelyn Macairan, Ghio Ong, Emmanuel Tupas, Elizabeth Marcelo