PENITENSYA P

Documenting Penance On Holy Week

ENITENSYA (PENITENCE), is a series of images portraying the lives of devotees in Barangay Wawa, Nasugbu, Batangas as they imitate the Passion of Christ during the Holy Week.

Barangay Wawa is a fishing village that faces the China Sea. The most populated place among the 42 barangays of Nasugbu, Batangas. With more than 17,000 dwellers, this barangay became a haven for different people from the original inhabitants to the migrants from other regions mostly from the Visayas. One of the most observed traditions every year is the “Semana Santa” in April. This is a week-long observance of the Catholic Church’s beliefs; self-denial, insistent prayers, and physical punishment for the forgiveness of sins and cleansing of souls.

According to the old folks, when the residents are few, few join the tradition. But every year as the population increases the devotees and the penitents increased. Still dark, but the silhouette of people larks in the place. Some of them are patiently waiting in the display of repentance through self-mortification in the belief that this will cleanse the soul ironically, some of them who are selfconfessed believers are in the place not to repent but to be merry.

In the distance, you will hear the clanking of the whips made of bamboo sticks or “bulilyo” flogging on the back of the penitents. The number of bamboo sticks at the end of the whipcord symbolizes the sins they asked to forgive. Closer, you will see the blood oozing due to the cuts made earlier on the back of the flagellates that starts to cover the whole of their back due to insistent lashing.

The scene becomes grimmer as the drops of blood splash in a different direction from the heavy blows and the foul odor of blood permeates the air. They are lined up along the beach, their heads were covered with black cloth to hide their identity, and some are seated near their heavy wooden crosses to carry and punished their body. You can hear no cries or remorse because this is their faith, to be cleansed, to pay back their answered prayer--healing of their sicked, good lives and fortunes, or simply an uttered promise.

Though the church didn’t promote this self-punishment for repentance, and even if to others, this is just scenery that adds color to the lives of the people to be witnessed and is captured for selfies and groupies, this became a tradition and culture among the people of Barangay Wawa, deeply rooted from the early teachings of the church handed from generation to generation.

“PENITENSYA” is a book that depicts the truth about the faith of the people, a way to preserve the accounts of history.