PHILIPPINES: CHRISTIAN FANATICS OBSERVE RE-ENACTMENT OF CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST

Record ID: 648496

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: CHRISTIAN FANATICS OBSERVE RE-ENACTMENT OF CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST
  • Date: 30th March 2002
  • Summary: (W3)CUTUD, PHILIPPINES (MARCH 29, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV HOODED CHRISTIAN DEVOTEES WHIPPING THEMSELVES AS THEY WALK THROUGH THE STREETS 2. MAN'S BACK BLEEDING PROFUSELY AS HE WHIPS HIMSELF; MV HOODED MAN BEING WHIPPED AS HE KNEELS; MV CHILDREN WATCHING THE RITE FROM BEIND WIRE FENCE; MV HOODED MAN WHIPPING HIMSELF 3. SCU NAILS TO BE USED IN CRUCIFIXION IN GLASS JARS 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) RUBEN ENAJA, ONE OF THE CHRISTIAN DEVOTEES, SAYING "This is my seventeenth crucifixion. This is what I can say to those who doubt our intentions, please do not say bad things about us. They will believe what they want to believe, but they should come here to talk to us first." 5. SLV CROWDS FLOCKING TO WITNESS SPECTACLE; MV DEVOTEES CARRYING CROSSES SURROUNDED BY ON-LOOKERS; MV DEVOTEE BEING HOISTED ON CROSS; MV PEOPLE DRESSED UP AS ROMAN SOLDIERS 6. SLV/ MEN ON CROSS / SCU NAILS THROUGH PALMS; SCU NAIL BEING BANGED INTO A MAN'S FEET 7. (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) CHRISTIAN DEVOTEE BOB VELEZ SAYING "The reason I return again to being nailed on the cross is because I had an accident since I stopped doing this." 8. MV MAN DRESSED AS ROMAN NAILING BOB VELEZ TO CROSS; SLV CROSS BEING RAISED WITH BOB VELEZ NAILED ON; SCU VELEZ'S FACE 9. ONLOOKERS WATCHING VELEZ ON THE CROSS (W3)ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES (MARCH 29, 2002) (REUTERS) 10. SCU HAND BEING NAILED TO CROSS; SCU FACE; MV DEVOTEE BEING RAISED ON CROSS; SCU NAIL PINNING HAND TO THE CROSS; SLV CROWD BELOW CROSS 11. SCU FACE OF DEVOTEE ON CROSS WITH CROWN OF THORNS ON HIS HEAD, EYES CLOSED; SCU LITTLE GIRL GAZING INTENTLY AT MAN ON CROSS 12. WIDE OF DEVOTEES ON CROSSES 3.26 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th April 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CUTUD AND ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Reuters ID: LVABMLYC7PBVA63FPFRWX0ACM9FM
  • Story Text: Christian fanatics in the Philippines have observed
    one of the more grisly rites of Easter - reenacting the
    crucifixion of Jesus and his ordeal on the cross in all its
    agonising detail.

    The ritual, held annually on a small hillock in the
    midst of lush rice paddies in Cutud, a town about 85
    kilometres north of the Philippines capital Manila, attracted
    thousands of spectators, mostly foreigners.

    They stood in the searing midday sun to watch the men
    being hoisted, one after the other, onto black wooden crosses
    with three-inch nails driven into their palms for up to 20
    minutes each.

    Earlier, hundreds of young men paraded through the streets
    of Cutud beating their backs until they bled with a clutch of
    short bamboo sticks attached to a thong, seeking penitence for
    sins committed.

    For 41-year old Ruben Enaja the crucifixion at Cutud is an
    annual pilgrimage - not as a spectator, but as a victim of the
    painful ordeal.

    "This is my seventeenth crucifixion. This is what I can
    say to those who doubt our intentions - please do not say bad
    things about us. They will believe what they want to believe,
    but they should come here to talk to us first," he told
    Reuters.

    Bob Velez, another man hoisted into the air by men dressed
    as Roman soldiers, says he used to come to Cutud to be
    crucified regularly but, since he stopped, things have taken a
    turn for the worse.

    "The reason I return again to being nailed on the cross is
    because I had an accident since I stopped doing this," he
    said.

    Similar acts of faith were on show in the Muslim-majority
    southern Philippine city of Zamboanga.

    Devotees trooped to a hill in Mount Pulongbato, around 5
    kilometres from Zamboanga City where more than 600 U.S. troops
    are stationed for the joint war games with Philippine troops
    called "Balikatan".

    But the Catholic church in the Philippines, Asia's only
    predominantly Catholic country has said it is trying to
    discourage the ritual which, it says, smacks of pagan beliefs.

    But, for the people of Cutud and Zamboanga, it's time to
    make money.

    Kiosks selling soft-drinks, bottled water and hand held
    fans sprang up in the front yards and empty plots of land
    turned into car parks.


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