MANILA, 9 April 2005 — Thousands of people gathered at Manila’s Rizal Park and at major Roman Catholic churches across the Philippines yesterday for prayer rallies for the funeral of Pope John Paul II in Rome.

The crowd carpeted one section of the sprawling park and cheered as a flower-bedecked “popemobile,” a bullet-proof vehicle used by the pontiff during his last visit to the Philippines a decade ago, arrived at the head of a procession.

The Philippines, with a population of 84 million, is Asia’s biggest Roman Catholic nation.

Simultaneous prayer rallies were held in major churches across the country, including at Quiapo Church about a kilometer from the Luneta or Rizal Park, where about a thousand people were gathered.

Luneta was the scene of a giant, open-air mass celebrated by the late pontiff during the second of his two visits to Manila as pope in January 1995, when several million people turned out during a World Youth Day rally.

He also visited the Philippines in 1981, and once when he was still a cardinal.

Giant streamers of the Polish pontiff kissing an unidentified Filipino child dominated a grandstand at one end of the park where Filipino Catholics gave testimonials of their previous meetings with the pope.

Balloons strung together in the shape of a rosary at one time floated above the crowd, estimated by police at some 10,000.

The Vatican burial ceremonies were broadcast live on giant television screens in the park.

“Pope John Paul II We Love You,” read one giant streamer.

“Farewell Pope John Paul II. Thank You For Your Legacy — The Culture of Life,” read another.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who flew to Rome to attend the funeral, hailed the pope for keeping close to his heart the welfare of the Filipino people.

“He was the first pope who took the time to celebrate a holy mass for our overseas workers here in Rome,” she said in a statement issued by her office in Manila.

“This is important, because we have more than eight million Filipinos living and working in foreign lands, who turned to the pope for guidance and strength when living and working outside the Philippines.”

The Philippines overwhelmingly supports the church stand on issues such as abortion, divorce, and birth control, and in a survey shortly before his death found Pope John Paul II was the most trusted person for most Filipinos.

Arroyo has joined the call by Filipino church leaders for the church to select another conservative pope.

“I have my great faith in the wisdom, the collective wisdom of the princes of the church that they will choose a pope who will carry on the important work of promoting morality in public life and in the private lives of people all over the world,” Arroyo told CNN television.

Arroyo said the pope had given moral impetus to the bloodless “people power” revolt that toppled her corruption-tainted predecessor Joseph Estrada in 2001.

The pope “had a very, very keen sense of understanding on what was happening in the Philippines,” Arroyo said when asked about the role of the Vatican in the church and military-backed uprising that toppled Estrada.

Then Vice President Arroyo came to power after Estrada was impeached by Congress and then deposed in a popular revolt amid a corruption scandal in which Estrada was accused of embezzling state funds and taking illegal kickbacks.

A similar popular revolt had unseated Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.