HUNDREDS of policemen were given last-minute instructions Monday afternoon before they were sent out as the biggest deployment to secure the “traslacion” of the Black Nazarene here.
Colonel Wilbur Salaguste, director of the PNP 10 operations said the policemen would be deployed along the more than two kilometers stretch from the St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral to Jesus Nazareno parish church in Barangay Lapasan.
Salaguste said the police contingent coming from the provinces of Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, and Misamis Occidental are augmented by soldiers from the Army 4th Infantry Division and the Coast Guard.
He said a force of 500 policemen would ring the coach carrying the “Callejeron” or the replica of the Black Nazarene as it is carried by devotees along the major streets of the city.
“Be gentle with the devotees. Do not lose your cool,” Salaguste told the policemen who were given last-minute instructions in the PNP 10 regional headquarters in Camp Alagar here Monday.
With last month’s bombing of a Catholic Mass in Marawi City at the back of their minds, Salaguete said they are taking no chances and have planned for the Black Nazarene security since December last year.
Salaguete said they expect the Black Nazarene procession would attract from 150,000 to 200,000 devotees coming from all over Mindanao.
Salaguste said all communications services would be jammed as soon as the “traslacion” or the procession would start on Tuesday morning.
The communication jamming would be lifted only as soon as the procession would reach the Jesus Nazareno parish, he said.
The Black Nazarene procession started in Cagayan de Oro only in 2009 but is a tamer version than that of Quiapo’s. It has become a major religious event in Mindanao.
