By GERRY LEE GORIT
Contributor
THE feast of the Black Nazarene was generally peaceful as there were fewer people than in 2020 who joined the procession during the celebration on Monday.
Lt. Col. Evan Viñas, the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) spokesperson, said they estimated this year’s crowd at 15,000, a few thousand fewer than 2020’s 250,000 participants.
He also said the devotees behaved and no untoward incident among the crowd was reported.
Viñas said authorities have also implemented the jamming of cellphone signals on the day of the feast for “security reasons.”
Lt. Col. Jelesis Teves, chief of Cocpo’s city operations and management unit, said about 2,198 police officers and civilian volunteers have been deployed to escort the statue of the Black Nazarene during the “traslacion” or procession from the St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral to the Nazareno church Monday morning.
There were four layers of security that formed a human barricade around the Black Nazarene composed of the Hijos del Nazareno, police officers from various units, the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team, and the barangay tanods, Teves said.
Small teams of law enforcers, including snipers positioned on top of buildings, were also stationed along the route of the procession and even on the city’s borders.
Teves said the city’s five border control checkpoints are also on alert to screen people entering Cagayan de Oro on the day of the feast.
With the law enforcers and force multipliers are the medical teams and other frontliners ready to respond to any emergency before, during, and after the “Traslacion.”