“I have received emails and telephone calls from other areas because they want to hire people willing to be crucified,,” said City of San Fernando tourism officer Ching Pangilinan at the News@Hues forum of the Pampanga Press Club at Park Inn Radisson at Clark on Tuesday.
Pangilinan declined to name the towns planning to have their first crucifixions, saying she ignored the requests. She stressed that the San Fernando local government has never sponsored the traditional true to life crucifixions which started in Barangay San Pedro Cutud in her city in 1962.
She said, however, that the San Fernando government would still assist in the events to ensure peace and order and other related needs in three crucifixion venues in her city, namely, San Pedro Cutud which is the most well-known, Sta. Lucia, and San Juan.
Meanwhile, Angeles City tourism officer Jun Cruz said his city will also be venue for another actual crucifixion in Barangay Lourdes Northwest. Such crucifixions started in the barangay only in 2013, he noted.
Pangilinan noted a decline in the number of tourists witnessing actual crucifixions in San Fernando, as she theorized that some tourists now go instead to other crucifixion events in this province according to their convenience.
“From an average of 50,000 tourists, the number of visitors in the recent years has gone down to an average of 35,000,” she noted.
“Barangay officials are the ones directly involved in these crucifixions. The city government comes in only because it has to make sure there is peace and order, and it also watches out for the health of the penitents,” she said.
Apart from an average of 10 Kristos having themselves crucified with real nails on crosses, about 500 other local folk indulge in self-flagellation in San Fernando from Holy Thursday to Good Friday, she added.
Pangilinan said the barangay officials in the crucifixion venues have timed their activities in a way that would allow visitors to witnesses the crucifixions one after the other. The first crucifixion starts at 9 a.m. in San Juan, 10 a.m. in Sta. Lucia and 12 noon in San Pedro Cutud. The crucifixion in San Pedro Cutud lasts up to 2 p.m., she noted.
Cruz said that in Angeles City, the lone Kristo is crucified at exactly 3 p.m. when Jesus Christ is said to have died on the cross. Two others would perform the role of the two thieves on crosses, but they would be merely tied, not nailed, he explained.
Unlike San Fernando, the Good Friday crucifixion in Angeles has been attracting an increasing number of tourists, mostly foreigners, since 2013, Cruz noted.
In the well-known crucifixions in San Pedro Cutud, the number of Kristos to be nailed would be known only on Good Friday itself, Pangilinan said. The barangay officials and the director of the entire scene of Jesus Christ’s passion would have the last say on who would be nailed on crosses, she added.
Pangilinan said, however, that Ruben Enaje, who has been the main Kristo for over 30 years now in San Pedro Cutud, is expected to again assume the same role. Enaje, a house painter, had initially vowed to be crucified as thanksgiving to God for sparing his life after a bad fall while at work.
She said, however, that her tourism office would rather that holy pilgrims also attend bloodless religious traditions not only in her city, but also in other parts of Pampanga.
