Fewer 鈥楰risto鈥� turn out for Cutud crucifixions
VOW Ruben Enaje (center), in this undated Good Friday photo, plays “Kristo” (Jesus Christ) as he is nailed to a cross in the village of San Pedro Cutud in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga, to fulfill a vow. —Tonette T. Orejas
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, PAMPANGA, Philippines — Have the numbers of penitents who submit to real-life crucifixion every Good Friday atop a replica of Golgotha in Barangay San Pedro Cutud here increased?
Romeo Diamse won’t say, though he likely knows.
At 65, the tricycle driver is one of just three remaining “Cutud centurions”—the men tasked with nailing the penitents’ hands and feet in the town’s Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) reenactment. For the past two decades, Diamse has driven those long steel nails with ritualistic precision. His late companion, Boy Carreon, famed for his “careful vigor,” died last year, leaving only Joel Celerio and Audi Gabriel to continue the tradition alongside him.
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Diamse broke his silence after sorting out the genuine devotees from the fakes among the people who play “Kristo” (Jesus Christ) or “papapaku” in Cutud.
“If I count those who get crucified for show in other places and get paid, there may be many. But our Kristo in Cutud [does] it only as penance,” he said in Kapampangan.
READ: Pampanga ‘Kristo’ crucified for 35th time on Good Friday
Devotees vs performers
Barangay captain Filipina “Fem” de la Cruz, village secretary Eric Bangal, retired “Kristo” Chito Sangalang and Ruben Enaje gave similar responses in separate interviews.
They first distinguished between true devotees and performers, then offered their respective counts. However, they declined to name the Kristo who “perform for a fee” in villages outside Cutud.
“There’s no resident in Cutud who profits from their devotion,” De la Cruz, speaking in Kapampangan, asserted.
She added that the barangay council had not kept an official record of those crucified, since the waivers signed during the city government’s medical checkups (required since 2004) had not been turned over to the village.
Sangalang observed that the number of Kristo being crucified in Cutud has dwindled over the years, a perception that appears statistically valid.
A list requested by the Inquirer from the City Tourism Office shows the number of participants across the years.
The earliest available record from 1986 lists 17 unnamed individuals from unidentified villages.
By 2013, the number rose to 18, and in 2014 to 17—of which 11 came from San Pedro Cutud, and three each from Sta. Lucia and San Juan.
The count dropped to 13 in 2016, to nine each year from 2017 to 2019, and to just eight in 2023.
In 2024, only 10 Kristo participated: four from San Pedro Cutud, three from Sta. Lucia, one from San Juan and two from Del Pilar.
The 11 Kristo from Cutud in 2014—Ruben Enaje, Jerry Manansala, Alfredo Patdo, Bob Velez, Arnold Maniago, Angelito Mengillo, Romelito Vergara, Victor Caparas, Danish filmmaker Lasse Spang Olsen, Ramil Lazaro and Bobby Gomez—were reduced to just four this year. They are Enaje, Maniago, Orlando Gozun and Angelito Menuillo.
Velez died of COVID-19 in 2022 at age 76. Spang did not return while Caparas had completed his vow. The reasons most of the others stopped are unknown.
Enaje and Maniago continue as “Kristo” this year, with Enaje marking his 36th crucifixion, believed to be the longest on record.
Roland Ocampo, who first appeared in 2013, hasn’t been officially listed since. He reportedly prefers to be crucified after 4 p.m., when the crowd has thinned.
Painful tradition
Itinerant faith healer Artemio Anoza is credited with starting the crucifixion reenactment in Cutud in 1962, initially by tying himself with an abaca rope. Enaje said he never met Anoza but knew Jesus Piring as the “Kristo” of his time.
It is unclear how the street play Via Crucis, written by Ricardo “Tata Legring” Navarro and first performed in 1955, merged with the actual nailing of a “Kristo” to the cross.
Enaje, a house painter, began portraying Jesus Christ in 1986, a year after he survived a 30-foot fall without injury. What began as a nine-year thanksgiving vow extended to 36 years, for his sick wife and daughter, and eventually his community, only interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022.
“Carrying the 37-kilogram cross is painful enough. But it’s most painful when the cross is fully raised, and I’m hanging there for 10 to 15 minutes. I just focus on praying—for my family and my community,” said Enaje, now 64.
He has expressed a desire to end his “panata” and has named Maniago as his rightful successor. Enaje succeeded Sangalang, who completed his 15-year vow in 2001 for his mother, Hilaria.
Enaje said older residents are still doing it as a vow. Younger men shun it mainly because it is painful and takes nine to 15 years.
In a report released by Ma. Lourdes Jade Pangilinan, city tourism chief, these are the names of other penitents, their ages and the number of times they got nailed on the cross in 2024.
San Pedro Cutud: Orlando Gozun, 43, 6th year; Angelito Menuillo, 48, 22nd year; Arnold Maniago, 45, 23rd year.
Sta Lucia: Danilo Ramos, 53, 31st year; Joselito Capili, 59, 19th year; Fernando Mamangun, 53, 27 years (as main Kristo).
San Juan: Wilfredo Salvador, 67, 16th year.
In Barangay Del Pilar, two men—Crisanto Ramos, 51, and Ubardo Yumang, 43—began their crucifixion in 2024 as a sacrifice for the good health of their families.
Women
Only four women have so far been nailed to the cross: Maria Tayag, 49, in 2023; Mary Jane Sason, 44, in 2011; and a Belgian nun. Bulacan faith healer Amparo Sanos completed her 15 years in 1998.
The number of flagellants (“mandarame”) is anticipated to be fewer, around 200 from more than 1,000 a decade ago, according to Ricky Yutuc, who makes “panabad,” a wounding object made up of nine sharp glass shards arranged in three rows resting on a wooden pad.
He had made only eight pieces as of April 4. The rest might use razor blades to wound their backs before whipping these with “burilyos” or 25 bamboo sticks tied together. Yutuc is confident that flagellation will continue because it is passed down from one generation to another.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Fernando has discouraged crucifixion and flagellation as forms of penance, encouraging instead confession, deeper religious life and acts of charity.
But Enaje sounded sure of the continuation of the expression of faith.
“Eya mabating ing papapaku uling tradisyun yan. Ating lultung Kristo (Crucifixion won’t be gone because it is a tradition. A Kristo will emerge),” he said.
