The government did not have specific intelligence on a terrorist plot. Still, about 15,000 policemen, backed by hundreds of army troops, secured the three-mile (five-kilometer) procession route for the charred wooden Black Nazarene statue from seaside Rizal Park to a popular church in Manila’s congested Quiapo district.

Air force helicopters stood by and cellphone service was blocked in procession areas to prevent its use to trigger bombs. Despite the president’s warning, huge crowds of devotees wearing maroon shirts surged near the statue, believed to have healing powers.

“It’s a choice between faith and fear,” said Rodolfo Uy, 45, a polio victim whose 12-year-old son pushed him on a wheelchair to see the Black Nazarene. “I got nervous last night when I heard the news but my devotion was stronger.”

Uy said he prayed for metal braces so he could walk and work again for his children.

President Benigno Aquino III announced in a hastily called news conference Sunday that several terrorists had been reported in the capital with plans to disrupt the procession, but that the threat was not high enough to cancel the procession and that police would work to keep it safe.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the threat, involving possible bombings by two groups of militants from the country’s volatile south, prompted police to raid several suspected terrorist hideouts in the Manila area, but without any results.

Gazmin defended Aquino’s decision to announce the threat on the eve of the procession despite the absence of a specific threat, saying it underscored the president’s concern for public safety and ratcheted up massive security preparations.

Aquino’s warning sparked one of the most elaborate security deployments for an event in the capital in recent years, but Gazmin dismissed criticisms of a security overkill.

“It’s OK if it can be described as overreacting,” Gazmin said. “But at least we won’t be sorry.”

During the morning Mass attended by about 3 million mostly barefoot devotees and expected to swell to 9 million later in the day, prayers were offered for victims of recent deadly floods. After the service, organizers brought the life-size Black Nazarene statue down from a stage to a carriage for a procession expected to last well into the night.

Dozens were hurt when a crowd surged forward to try to touch, kiss and dab their towels on the statue, toppling iron railings and pinning other devotees. The Red Cross said it treated more than 250 people with bruises and other minor injuries throughout the day, including some from the morning melee.

The carriage’s wheels later broke, slowing the procession. Authorities said the parade might be cut short as it dragged on into the night.

In addition to hundreds of army troops, the military said it deployed 19 teams of explosive experts, 33 units with bomb-sniffing dogs, crowd-control squads and ambulances. It put a 500-member rapid reaction force and three helicopters on standby.

There were suspicions that attackers might come from two radical groups, including the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, which is on a US list of terrorist organizations for deadly bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.