Kids in Pampanga photographed flogging themselves during Holy Week

Pampanga has long been known for the bloody, ritualistic floggings and crucifixions that villagers stage during Holy Week. But there were at least two unlikely participants in this year’s ritual in the province—children, who were photographed flogging themselves.

 

Photographer Jay Javier was in Angeles City, Pampanga on Good Friday, and was shocked to find two boys among the flagellants. 

 

“We were just passing through when I saw [the first boy.] I thought costume lang, he was being cute. Pero na-notice ko, 'yung flagellum niya na made out of wood or bamboo, he was hitting himself in the back, so kinunan namin,” Javier told GMA News Online in a phone interview.

 

Javier noted that it wasn’t enough that the boy was whipping himself and bruising his back—an older participant even offered to wipe the boy’s back in blood to make the whole scene “more realistic.”

 

“May lumapit na I assume is his father siguro, sabi, ‘Lagyan natin para maganda. Bina-brush niya with the flagellum, binudbud niya sa bata, sa likod,’” Javier said.

 

The photographer noted that he saw another child doing the same thing, in a long line of about 15 other adult devotees.

 

“'Yung pangalawa, nakita namin sa isang line, tapos may maliit na dumaan, obviously bata,” he said.

DSWD, Church reactions

 

Meanwhile, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman said that parents will be warned against the practice.

 

“I have instructed the field office in central Luzon to get in touch with the parents and to provide them counseling on this unfortunate circumstance,” she said in a text message sent to GMA News Online.

 

The Catholic Church has long discouraged self-flaggelation and crucifixions, saying devotion can be shown in other ways.

 

Fr. Rafael Paras, parish priest of Sta. Lucia in Cutud, gthe center of the lurid practice, said physically harming oneself is not the way Jesus Christ would have wanted his church to act during Holy Week. Paras, however, acknowledged that the Catholic Church in the Philippines does not go so far as to condemn the practice. 

 

“Ang una sa lahat, ang inang simbahan ay 'di sinusulong ang ganitong paraan ng pagpapakasakit bilang paghanda sa pagdating ni Kristo. Hindi ito sinusulong although hindi rin naman ito kino-condemn ng Inang Simbahan dahil nakikita naman ng simbahan na para sa mga deboto personally, ito siguro 'yung paraan nila para sa pagbabalik-loob sa Panginoon,” he said. —KG/RSJ/HS, GMA News