16 PENITENTS NAILED TO THE CROSS
San Fernando, Pampanga, April 11, 1998 - Thousands of foreign tourists, including hundreds of foreign correspondents and international television crews, have camped in Barangay San Pedro Cutud to get the best position for viewing the town's annual bizarre Lenten ritual.
At least 16 penitents, including a 56-year-old woman, will be nailed to wooden crosses at high noon today, Good Friday, at a makeshift Golgotha amidst lahar-covered farms.
Amparo Santos, a faith healer, will be nailed to the cross for the second time. Chito Sanggalang, a smoked fish vendor, will act the role of Jesus Christ during the penitents' procession before the actual crucifixion. He will be nailed to the center of three wooden crosses.
Sanggalang said he started the ritual ten years ago to seek divine intervention for his mother, who is sick with tuberculosis. He believes being nailed to the cross would help him get closer to God.
In previous years, a Japanese computer engineer and a Belgian nun participated in the bloody ritual and had themselves nailed to the cross.
Prior to the crucifixions, hundreds of barebacked and barefooted penitents will walk around the town flagging themselves with whips tipped with pointed pieces of metal, causing their backs to become bloody.
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