Holy Week ceremonies banned for the 2nd straight year

By Jack Ramos and Tristan Montecillo

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Due to the implementation of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the public is once again forbidden to attend Holy Week celebrations in the Greater Manila Area.

This will be the second year in a row that the Filipino Catholic faithful will observe Holy Week inside their homes due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last March 27, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered one week of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and Laguna that will start from March 29 and will end on April 4 because of the continuous increase in Covid-19 cases.

The strictest quarantine level will hit the Holy week from Holy Monday until Easter Sunday.

“No more religious gatherings. Full stop!” said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in a virtual press conference with the People's Television Network (PTV).

Manila Mayor Fransico "Isko" Moreno Domagoso announced earlier that he will suspend Holy Week activities in Manila since this will attract large crowds and it will be easier for coronavirus to spread. Some of the rituals mentioned were Caridad, Penitensya, and Visita Iglesia.

"Yung nagpapalo sa likod, nagbubuhat ng krus na naggi-generate ng mga tao, yung Visita Iglesia wala rin yan," he said in an interview on Super Radyo DZBB.

Instead, Moreno urged the residents of Manila to observe Holy Week inside their homes to minimize the risk of having Covid-19 amid the surge.

“Ang importante sa Semana Santa, yung relasyon natin sa Diyos sa panahon kung saan siya nagbayad ng dugo para sa ating mga kasalanan, magnilay-nilay tayo," the Manila mayor added.

The Archdiocese of Manila, Cardinal José Fuerte Advincula Jr. and the rest of the Catholic community did not like the total ban of religious gatherings.

The Archdiocese of Manila covers the cities of Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasay, and San Juan.

Cardinal Advincula released a pastoral letter to the public last March 23 that they will continue religious gatherings at only 10% church capacity that will start on the following day, March 24.

"We will not have any religious activity outside of our churches such as pabasa, processions, motorcades, senakulo and Visita Iglesia but within our churches starting March 24, we will have our religious worship within 10% of our maximum church capacity," Bishop Broderick Pabillo said in an interview on Radio Veritas, the non-commercial Catholic station.

"So diyan mali na sila at hindi dapat tayo sumunod sa ganyang pamamalakad na walang konsultasyon and it somehow breaks the separation of church and state," Pabillo added.

In response to Pabillo's statement, Roque warned him that they use police powers to close down churches about their plan to defy the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

"Defiance of an IATF resolution is not covered by separation of church and state. What is covered is the freedom to believe and the freedom not to endorse a religion," Roque said in an interview with PTV-4.

After a series of debates between the two parties, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) announced last March 28 that all religious activities starting from Holy Monday to mark the passion and death of Jesus Christ will be done online.

“It’s a lockdown. People are not allowed to go out. Cases are in the upswing. Therefore, Holy Week celebrations in the bubble (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and Laguna) will be done online just like last year,” Fr. Jerome Secillano, the CBCP executive secretary on public affairs, said in a text message to The Manila Times.

Unlike this year, last year there was no debate between the church and the government since all countries around the globe suspended their activities for the Holy Week 2020.

Pampanga did not hold its annual reenactment of the crucifixion and hooded flagellants during last year's Holy Week.

In a previous article in The Philippine Star, Ruben Enaje, who has been crucified every year since 1985 for the reenactment, abstained from the practice last year.

He vowed to do it for 27 years as a form of thanksgiving for divine favors that saved his life.

“I suppose flagellants would also not engage in their bloody practices because open wounds just makes them more vulnerable to COVID-19,” Enaje said according to the article.

Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin stated last year that the local government made the decision to cancel "all public events for this year’s Lenten season, including the Siete Palabras on Good Friday” in a letter to Barangay Lourdes Northwest.

All public masses last year were already suspended in the Philippines even before Holy Week 2020 occurred and to still celebrate the Rites of Holy Week the CBCP recommended going online for the first time.