Black Nazarene devotees seek divine hand vs corruption

Devotees reach to touch the statue of the Black Nazarene inside the Cagayan de Oro Metropolitan Cathedral where it was brought for a vigil on January 8, eve of the Traslacion. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 9 January) — Many of the devotees who joined the Traslacion, the annual procession for the replica of the Black Nazarene, here Friday expressed through prayers their outrage over corruption involving high public officials.

Fr. Der John Faborada, social communications director of the Cagayan de Oro Archdiocese said many of their parishioners prayed for justice to be rendered against those involved in the multi-billion-peso corruption in flood control projects.

“Many of our parishioners are outraged over this corruption issue and many have expressed they would seek justice through divine intervention,” Faborada said.

This year’s number of devotees who joined the Traslacion was almost twice that of last year.

As in the previous years, the image of the Black Nazarene was honored with a procession from the Cagayan de Oro Metropolitan Cathedral to its shrine in Nazareno Parish Church in Barangay Lapasan, around 2.5 kilometers away.

Nick Jabagat, City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office chief, said at least 23,000 joined the Traslacion.

He recalled that in 2025, the crowd dwindled to only 13,000.

The Traslacion in Cagayan de Oro is considered a major religious even in Mindanao, drawing thousands of devotees annually. At its peak before the COVID-19 lockdowns, over 150,000 devotees from all over the island flocked to the city. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)