Last of two parts
TOMORROW is the 40th anniversary of the victory of People Power against the Ferdinand E. Marcos dictatorship. I’d always likened that kind of Filipino phenomenon to the concept of salya of the devotees of the Poong Jesus Nazareno during Traslacion when people come together to push the andas to its proper direction. But just like the hiccups in the aftermath of People Power, which I described as “40 years in the wilderness and we still do not see the promised land” (in reference to Moses), there are hiccups too that we see in the recent processions.
As we said, in the last Traslacion, there were 9.6 million devotees in a procession that lasted less than 31 hours (nine hours in Arlegui Street), with two procession-related deaths. When I was asked by the Hijos del Nazareno heads lay or presidents to join them in the focused group discussion last Jan. 25, 2026 at the Traslacion 2026 Post-Event evaluation, my questions to them focused on one thing: Why did we have nine hours of delay in Arlegui and two deaths?
So, without spilling sensitive information, this is what I got from the discussion and also compared some notes with Kuya Alex Irasga who was there too:
First, the structure of the andas. When the three wheels of the andas became damaged and the steering wheel too, the devotees could not carry the andas. In the old design there was a wooden pingga around the andas which the devotees used to carry, yes, carry the andas themselves in times when it cannot move like in the 2012 Traslacion. From 2024, to discourage people from climbing or making sampa in the andas, that wooden pingga was taken away. This design of course was consulted and agreed upon by the Hijos leadership in good faith but many times you realize that you really needed something when you lost it already.
Second, most of the people I talk to not only from this discussion, but also from others, said that that most of the devotees were newer devotees but they were more aggressive. They do not follow the timon, they seem to not mind the instructions and had signs about the rope and the salya. Apparently, they do not know the coda ng mamamasan, or what I call the BRO Code. I saw footage of people gesturing bangketa to bring them safely to the side and no one was responding. One lay head described it as if they were in “Train to Busan.” Kuya Alex, who was in front of the andas at one time saw a group of devotees block the andas; they prayed fervently, made the sign of the cross and just like cats, they just climbed the andas very swiftly. With the old andas, they used to climb from the back, but now they were climbing from the front. Also, the new design also prevents the timon from getting a good view because he lacked the space to stand properly.
In my presentation, I made a point where, in the years before the pandemic (2020), we had long processions, but we had no deaths. What calms the devotees is the certainty that he can do his devotion or pagsalang. But all kinds of barriers, whether in steel, glass, police or regulations (no sampa, goal of 15-hour Traslacion) excites some devotees to overcome them. Also, and the most important point I believe, was that when the three years of the pandemic happened when there was no procession, the knowledge-transfer of the coda ng mamamasan halted with the new devotees, and people after that just became too excited to to be with the image of the Señor.
Third, because excited devotees all wanted to climb or sampa, not so many people do the salya anymore, and because of the prohibition to climb the andas, there were no more tagapingga at the side. Which led to the phenomenon we saw in the past two Traslacions where the andas was seemingly brought by the devotees to the side to the bangketa, instead of moving it forward, which led to the death of one of the participants. The Hijos heard reports that the delay was really caused by groups who really planned to block the andas in the smaller streets of Quiapo.
There are other factors of course which should be solved internally but with what we discussed, here are some of my personal recommendations of questions.
– Bring back the BRO Code, propagate the coda ng mamamasan as a cool thing among young people because it considers the kapwa when doing your own devotion, hopefully there could be formations and social media campaigns through this;
– Bring back the wooden pingga to the new design so in times of emergency devotees can carry it;
– Bring back the tagapingga at the side of the andas because this would prevent the andas being pinned to the bangketa and would avoid deaths;
– Would allowing more people to make salang at the big roads of Katigbak and P. Burgos decongest the smaller streets of Quiapo, in which crowd crush delay the procession? Shall we have long Traslacions that last 20 hours but are safer because devotees are less agitated? Should we just anticipate and plan for longer Traslacions?
On Jan. 27, the recommendations of the whole exercise were presented to the Quiapo Church rector, Father Jade Licuanan, for consideration for the next Traslacion to be more solemn and safer.
Erratum
In last week’s column, “There were also two procession related dates” should have read, “There were also two procession-related deaths.” My bad.
