As days draw near to the for the Feast of the Black Nazarene, the Quiapo Church executive committee is expecting at least 5 million devotees to participate in the Traslacion.
To ensure the smooth flow of the procession, National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) Chief Director Guillermo Eleazar revealed that they already have security in place for the traslacion.
Meanwhile, the Manila City government said that their police are on full heightened alert to secure the devotees of the Black Nazarene after receiving an intelligence report that members of a Islamist terrorist group might create trouble.
“Combined personnel of the different departments of the city government, such as the Task Force Clean up composed of the Department of Public Services (DPS), engineering department, the Manila Action and Special Assignment (MASA), the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), MPD will be there to make the traslacion peaceful, orderly and clean,” Estrada said.
Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau (MTPB) chief Dennis Alcoreza and MASA chief Jimmy de Pedro have already conducted patrol operations as early as Friday and will continue up to the actual traslacion on Jan. 9 just to make sure that the translacion will not encounter any serious problem.
Interestingly, according to Fr. Daniel Voltaire Hui, Pastoral Vicar of Quiapo Church that more young people are becoming devotees of the more than 400-year-old image of the Black Nazarene, which many believe is miraculous as many have given testimonies that through the Black Nazarene their prayers have been answered.
“The number of young devotees of the Black Nazarene is increasing and based on this observation, their number might already be 50 percent,” said Hui. The “young devotees” are those who are 13 years old up to the late 30s.
“These young devotees might have just started off as being companions of their parents, who are devotees and went to hear mass at the Quiapo Church and attended processions. But as they grow older, they begin to decide on their own that they also want to become devotees,” Hui said in closing.
To those who would like to know the schedule of activities for the Black Nazarene devotion, please check the details below:
Monday, January 7
1:30 pm: Blessing and procession of replicas to be held in Quiapo Church
Tuesday, January 8 (All activities for this day will be held at Quirino Grandstand
7 am: Holy Mass for Nazareno 2019 volunteers at Quirino Grandstand
8 am: Start of Pahalik at Quirino Grandstand
5 pm: Evening prayer and start of vigil Quirino Grandstand
Wednesday, January 9
Midnight: Fiesta Mass (Quirino Grandstand)
3 am: Start of hourly Masses (Quiapo Church)
4 am: Morning prayer (Quirino Grandstand)
5 am: Start of Traslacion 2019 (Quirino Grandstand)
Thursday, January 10
2:30 am Arrival of the Black Nazarene (Quiapo Church)
