1.3 million devotees witness end of Black Nazarene procession at Quiapo Church

January 10, 2019

Around 1.3 million devotees celebrated the annual commemoration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene to the Quiapo Church which ended after 21 hours Thursday morning, police said. 

  The image of the Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno or Black Nazarene returned  to the Quiapo Church in Manila at 2:08 am. The procession started at 5 am Wednesday at the Quirino Grandstand after the hourly fiesta mass. 

  This year's procession of the "andas" or float bearing the image ended an hour earlier compared to last year. 

  National Capital Region Police Director Guillermo Eleazar said the celebration was more orderly than the previous years. 

  "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, it became more orderly than last time but we still want to make improvements for the translacion on 2020," Eleazar told reporters. 

  Eleazar also said a total of four million devotees attended the activities starting from December 31 to January 10. 

Data from the National Capitol Region Police Office showed crowd estimate for the novena masses held on December 31 to January 8 reached 1.5 million. The number of participating devotees increased to 2.5 million during the fiesta mass held exactly 12 midnight of January 9 until the end of procession, Thursday morning.  Cristina Eloisa Baclig/DMS