By NITZ ARANCON
and LITO RULONA
Correspondents
THE number of Roman Catholic devotees who took part in the annual Black Nazarene procession here yesterday was not even half of what the Nazareno parish expected.
Police estimated the procession crowd to be from 16 thousand to 70 thousand.
Chief Supt. Gerardo Rosales, Camp Alagar deputy regional director for administration, said continuous rains in the past few days due to tropical depression “Auring” affected the procession turnout.
Allan Porcadilla, head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Department, said bad weather prompted many religious devotees to stay home or in the sidelines.
“Ang uban nga mga devotes, naghulat nalang daplin sa dalan nga molabay ang karo sa Black Nazarene, ug wala na sila mo-uban sa procession tungod lagi sa ulan,” said Porcadilla.
Nazareno parish priest The Rev. Fr. Julius Clavero earlier said organizers were expecting participants to exceed 250 thousand this year based on the procession turnout in 2016.
Police officials gave different crowd estimates. Chief Insp. Victor Cacdac, operations head of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo), told local radio that he estimated the crown at only over 16 thousand. But Chief Insp. Ariel Philip Pontillas, chief of Cocpo’s intelligence branch, said the crowd was between 60 thousand to 70 thousand. City police director Senior Supt. Ronnie Francis Cariaga placed the crowd at some 60 thousand.
Rosales said despite the relatively low turnout, the annual procession was a success, and peaceful.
He lauded motorists, including drivers of public utility vehicles, for being very cooperative during the procession.
Rosales said the security measures implemented since Sunday proved to be very effective.
The city police received support from the military and Camp Alagar, particularly the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB). The Army’s 4th Infantry Division sent at least eight platoons to help in securing the city. The Air Force, Coast Guard, Bureau of Fire Protection, and City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council also helped.
“Napatuman ang tanan nga security measures sa palibot sa area, including jamming of signals,” Rosales said.
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