New Delhi, Jan. 9 -- A massive crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics joined an annual procession of a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in the Philippine capital Friday, with some using the gathering to express outrage over a corruption scandal involving influential legislators.

After a midnight mass joined by tens of thousands of worshippers at a seaside park in Manila, the wooden Jesus the Nazarene statue was placed on a four-wheel open carriage before dawn at the start of the procession that Manila Mayor Isko Moreno claimed could draw millions of devotees throughout the day and into the late night.

One of Asia's major religious spectacles, the often-raucous procession of the life-size statue meanders through nearly six kilom...