(Update) Tens of thousands of people join Black Nazarene procession

Tens of thousands of barefoot Filipino Catholic devotees jostled for a chance to touch a 401-year-old black statue of Jesus Christ in an annual procession Wednesday regarded as a way to seek blessings or forgiveness for sins. About 700 police officers secured the square outside the church in Quiapo, where plainclothes officers pulled a cart carrying a replica of the statue of the Black Nazarene amid a sea of devotees pushing against each other and stretching their hands to get closer to the statue. The original statue is kept at the church altar. TV reports said at least two devotees were taken to a hospital after fainting in the crush of bodies surging toward the statue. Radio reports, however, said at least two were killed. The report said a female devotee expired while undergoing treatment in a government hospital hours after she collapsed. Radio dzBB reported that the woman, whose identity was withheld pending notification of her relatives, died of cardiac arrest at the Philippine General Hospital at 2:55 p.m. The woman collapsed near the Carriedo area in Sta. Cruz, Manila. Bystanders rushed her to the hospital. Another devotee succumbed while in a hospital, GMA Flash Report said. Last year, a male devotee died after falling into an open manhole during the procession. Police estimated the crowd this year at about 80,000 people. Many believe the life-sized wooden figure, brought by Spanish missionaries from Mexico in 1606, holds mystical powers that can wash away sins or cure illnesses. The missionaries' ship caught fire and the image was burned but survived as a testament to a unique brand of Catholicism that combines folk superstitions in Asia's most populous Christian nation. The archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, who led a dawn Mass, said the celebration personifies ''taking up one's crosses and trials in life in imitation of Christ.'' Rogello Estacio, 43, said he used to faint as a young boy and doctors could not help him. ''So what my mother did was to come here to Quiapo and eventually she became a devotee. My ailment disappeared. When I grew up I eventually became a devotee, too,'' he said. One of the few women in the crowd, 62-year-old Mercedita David, said she used to climb atop the carriage carrying the statue when she was younger and stronger. Now, she said, ''just to get a glimpse is good enough for me.'' She said the ''grace of the holy Nazarene'' has kept tragedies away from her family. As the statue crawled through crammed streets, pulled on a rope on its way back to the church, many hurled towels or handkerchiefs to be wiped on the image. - GMANews.TV with an AP report