Christian devotees around the world mark Good Friday of Holy Week with their reenactment of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, a ritual long familiar to Filipinos. In Jammu, India (1st photo), Christians hold a Way of the Cross procession. Members of St. Francis Catholic Church (2nd photo) in Lagos, Nigeria, dress and play their parts in a reenactment of the Crucifixion. A similar staging was also held at the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, where spectators (3rd photo) captured the scene with their mobile phones. In the Philippines, official records in a village in Pampanga where the reenactment of Christ’s suffering is traditionally held show a decline in the number of penitents submitting themselves to crucifixion—from 17 in 2014 to only eight in 2023. But the Catholic Church discourages this form of penance and instead urges the flock to practice holiness, charity and constant prayer. —AP
BEATING THE HEAT
Residents in Noveleta, Cavite, prepare to take a plunge at Manila Bay to cool themselves, amid Black Saturday’s heat index of 41 degrees Celsius in several parts of Metro Manila and Calabarzon region. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
SECURING THE POLLS
Some 240 Army soldiers are deployed on April 15 to Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, amid reports of election campaign-related violence in these provinces—in particular, 32 areas classified by the Commission on Elections as under the critical “red category.” At a gathering of candidates that day in Marawi City, provincial capital of Lanao del Sur, Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, head of the Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, called for their cooperation in helping maintain peace and order. —RICHEL V. UMEL
