San Pedro Cutud in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga is the most watched Good Friday destination in the Philippines. Its Via Crucis passion play, staged by the community since the 1950s, ends with volunteer penitents actually nailed to crosses on a makeshift Golgotha — the culmination of Maleldo, the Kapampangan observance of Holy Week. (Warning: the photographs are graphic.)
Around the crucifixion site, thousands of magdarame — hooded flagellants fulfilling a vow, or panata — move through the streets under the midday sun. These photographs are from Good Friday 2010 in Cutud. Visitors should come early, expect extreme heat and crowds, and treat the rites as acts of devotion, not spectacle.
For more recent coverage, see Maleldo 2024: A Photographic Journey into Faith and Sacrifice.
robin pinzon