Easter after crucifixion for San Juan’s ‘savior’

PAMPANGA, Philippines — “Do you believe in miracles?” asks the man who looks like Jesus. Wilfredo Salvador has made himself in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ – bearded, long-haired, and crowned with thorns.

It seems that even Wilfredo’s family name befits a man trying to relive, year after year, the passion of Christendom’s savior. Salvador is Spanish for “savior.”

The 58-year-old Wilfredo has lived through not one but 9 crucifixions. But there are no signs of crucifixion wounds, or what St. Paul calls “the marks of Jesus.” There are no visible scars on his hands and feet. But there is a scar on his right chest, a memory of the knife attack he survived a long time ago, a time he says he has long forgotten.

The agony

Wilfredo confessed that he had a nervous breakdown when he was 27. From the stories of his younger brothers, Abnel and Romy, it seems Wilfredo succumbed to depression. And probably even paranoia.

Wilfredo relied on prescription sleeping pills to calm him down. But these didn’t help much. He stopped taking the pills and tried to cope with his condition on his own. But in 2003, Wilfredo says he slipped back into the depths of darkness.

In those dark days, some of his neighbors seemed like the Roman centurions who mocked and persecuted Jesus. Children taunted him, laughed at him, and treated him like a toy. So says Abnel. Two toughies even beat him up. So says Romy.

Then something snapped. Maybe, he found faith while battling his inner demons. Wilfredo made a vow to God. He made his panata, his sacred devotion, a promise he says he intends to fulfill, as long as God so permits.

Every year since 2006, Wilfredo is nailed to the cross.

The crucifixion

The sun is barely peeking in the horizon, but Wilfredo is already up. He sits in their family compound’s open kitchen, and his eyes gaze into space. Today, he is going to be nailed for the 9th time.

The fisherman from the village of San Juan in San Fernando, Pampanga, looks frail. But his spiritual resolve seems to be made of steel. He soon finds himself kneeling before a wooden cross. Wilfredo says he prayed for mercy, for blessings, for forgiveness. Again, he surrenders himself to God.

His eyes are closed. He seems calm. The first nail is hammered into his left hand. Wilfredo seems to be in a trance. He doesn’t flinch. The second nail is hammered. He does not move. His two feet are nailed as well. He is now looking up, his eyes transfixed on the heavens.

A small crowd of about a hundred people had gathered in this culmination of what the actors in this performance call “living theater.”

This is Maleldo, a passion play observed during Holy Week in the villages of San Juan, Sta. Lucia, and San Pedro Cutud, in San Fernando, Pampanga.

The man who played Jesus is lowered from the cross. Wilfredo is carried on a stretcher by medical personnel; his hands are clasped together, as if in a prayer. The puncture wounds on his hands and feet are given immediate medical attention.

Soon, Wilfredo resurrects from the medical tent, walks home, punctured feet and all. He brings home a bunch of pills given by doctors, his white tunic costume in the passion play, and all 4 of his custom-made stainless steel nails.

Briefly, he rests. He bathes. Then hops on a bike.

Main stage: San Pedro Cutud

The man who had just been nailed to the cross pedals his way to the main stage of Maleldo, in San Pedro Cutud.

Here, the tradition of crucifixion began in the early 1960s. Here, crowds swell to as many as about 5,000 people. Here, Ruben Enaje is the main actor. He has been nailed to the cross for a record 29 times.

It was also in Cutud where Wilfredo was first crucified. For 5 years, he shared the stage here with many other “Jesuses.”

He recounts a time when people stole his clothes while he was being crucified in Cutud. He lost them perhaps in the way the Roman soldiers had fought over Jesus’ robe. Wilfredo then had to go home with just a white cloth draped over his underwear.

This year, Wilfredo, the Jesus in San Juan’s passion play, is just among the thousands of people watching the spectacle in Cutud.

In contrast to Wilfredo’s quiet nailing in San Juan, the crucifixion of Enaje draws loud “ohhs” and “ahhs” from spectators who witness the actual act of metal nails piercing human flesh, up close, in a giant screen.

The crowd grows thin after Enaje is lowered from the cross. The half-a-dozen minor actors who were also nailed to the cross in Cutud do not draw as much attention.

Like the rest, Wilfredo goes home.

Black Saturday is a day of rest for him.

On Easter Sunday, he usually goes to the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo and the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros to pray.

Since he made his panata 9 years ago, Wilfredo claims he has become more religious. He claims his and his family’s life has turned for the better. And he claims he is in a better state of mind. All because of his faith. – Rappler.com