CUTUD (Philippines), April 18: Fourteen Filipino devotees, including four women, were nailed to the cross in a macabre re-enactment of Jesus Christ’s suffering on Good Friday that has become an annual tourist attraction in this farming village outside Manila.

Thousands of local and foreign tourists flocked to the village of Cutud in Pampanga province, some 70kms north of Manila, to witness the crucifixions, ignoring pleas from the Roman Catholic church which disapproves of the violent ritual.

Ruben Enaje, 42, this year’s lead Kristo, is a house painter who has been nailed to the cross for the past 17 years.

He made a vow to have himself nailed to the cross yearly for 20 years after escaping death after a fall from a three-storey building.

“It was a miracle. A thanksgiving because I did not even break a bone in my body. I still have three years to go,” Enaje told AFP as he prepared to be taken away for the day’s final act.

“At first it’s painful, but after a while you feel nothing as the nails pass through your flesh. The wounds usually fully heal after two weeks,” he said.—AFP