by Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/PNA
MANILA — With almost 1.4 million devotees joining the celebration, the feast of the Black Nazarene ended generally peaceful early Thursday morning, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) said.
NCRPO Chief, Police Director Guillermo Eleazar said there were no major untoward incidents during the Traslacion (transfer) of the image of the Black Nazarene on Wednesday.
Eleazar noted zero crime incidents during the traslacion as he expressed his gratitude to the help and cooperation from stakeholders and agencies.
“Based on our assessment, it’s better now than before, with the result of peace and order situation and with the result of injuries and casualties, naging mas maayos ngayon kesa last time but gusto pa natin mas pagandahin pa for traslacion 2020 (it has been orderly compared to last year but we would like to improve for next year),” Eleazar told reporters.
“No untoward incident tayo, wala tayong casualties except meron tayong 740 devotees who got minor injuries and were provided medical assistance. Basically, generally peaceful tayo,” he said.
The procession lasted for about 21 hours and 7 minutes on the 6.15-kilometer procession route. The Black Nazarene’s carriage finally reached Quiapo Church around 2:08 a.m. on Thursday.
“We are not really concerned about the travel time kasi our consideration is pagiging tahimik at maayos (for this to be orderly). They (devotees/hijos) owned this activity/program. Naging maayos dahil lahat ng concerned agencies ay ginawa nila ang kanilang mga assignments dito (Everything went well because all concerned agencies did their respective jobs),” Eleazar said.
“We deployed around 7,200 na kapulisan. Andito ang kapulisan more than one day na walang palitan ng uniporme, walang tulugan, walang pahinga. I would like to commend ang ating kapulisan at pati na din ang mga media na sumasama sa atin (Our police stayed for more than a day, no changing of clothes, no sleep, no rest. I commend them and the media for joining us),” the NCRPO chief noted.
The procession started after the mass at the Quirino Grandstand at around 5 a.m. Wednesday. The procession was expected to last for almost a day as its pace was very slow due to the huge crowd and flock of people waiting along the procession route.
