Filipino Roman Catholic devotees are pushed by police and military as they try to break the barriers to go near the carriage of the Black Nazarene during a raucous procession to celebrate its feast day Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020, in Manila, Philippines. A mammoth crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics prayed for peace in the increasingly volatile Middle East at the start Thursday of an annual procession of a centuries-old black statue of Jesus Christ in one of Asia's biggest religious events. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Policemen doubled as a human barricade to errant devotees wanting to get closer to the carriage of the Black Nazarene.
While this served as part of the police force’s security measure, it did not sit well with some devotees, who felt that this deprived them of the opportunity to touch the revered image.
