NAZARENE DEVOTEE TRAMPLED TO DEATH IN ANNUAL PROCESSION
MANILA, January 10, 2006 (STAR) By Evelyn Macairan And Edu Punay - A male devotee was killed during the annual procession of the Black Nazarene early yesterday afternoon after wood planks covering an excavation on C. Palanca street in Quiapo, Manila collapsed beneath him.
"He was trampled on after he fell," Senior Superintendent Romulo Sapitula of the Manila Police District (MPD) said, adding that hundreds of others were also injured in the stampede.
According to Medical Officer 4 Shirley Yabut of the Manila Health Office, the stampede probably killed the victim, who was initially identified as Ruben according to the name patch on his shirt. The Philippine General Hospital (PGH), where the victim was brought for treatment, said his name was Dante.
"The wooden manhole cover gave way because there were many people stepping on it," Yabut said. "The victim fell into the manhole while others tripped over him and might have landed on him. He died of cardiac arrest."
Thousands of devotees trooped to Manila yesterday to catch a glimpse of or touch the statue of the Black Nazerene as it was carried down the streets of Quiapo.
Several men were standing on a wooden manhole cover when they fell and were stepped on, witnesses said. It took time for the men to be carried out one by one from the jammed square fronting the Quiapo Church, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Vidal Querol said.
Lito Marcellana of the Fire Emergency and Paramedic Assistance Group rushed the victim to PGH: "We brought him to the ambulance and gave him cardio-pulmonary resuscitation but, after a few minutes, it was decided that he should be brought to PGH. While on the way, I was giving him CPR until we reached the hospital, (where) the doctors pronounced him dead," he said.
Manila Mayor Lito Atienza said he was saddened by death of a devotee of the Black Nazarene. "We will review the use of the wooden manhole covers in Manila... It is just sad that this particular manhole cover caused an accident," he said.
Sapitula said that, as of 4 p.m. yesterday, the celebration reached its peak with a crowd of 600,000 devotees.