48-hour gun ban in Manila for Black Nazarene feast

A 48-hour gun ban will be implemented from Jan. 8 to 10 as a security measure for the “Traslacion” of the Black Nazarene on Jan. 9, Manila Police District (MPD) director Chief Supt. Joel Coronel said in a press briefing in Quiapo Church yesterday.

On Tuesday, January 9, the Quiapo district will be bursting with hundreds of thousands of devotees – even millions, as some have forecast – in the annual procession of the Feast of the Black Nazarene.

Five days before the devotion explodes into a thousand stories of hope, several sectors of the community have been busy preparing safety measures for the “Traslacion” procession – from the Quirino Grandstand to Quiapo Church – a procession that took about 20 hours last year.