The Iglesia ni Cristo is making a mockery of Philippine laws and personalities who are aspiring for the presidency are either kowtowing to the church leadership or treading lightly on the controversy.
Vice President Jejomar Binay has become the INC’s prime protector accusing Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s investigation of reported kidnapping and detention of INC members as ”a clear act of harassment and interference from the administration.”
Sen. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., whose father ‘s two decade rule enjoyed the support of the INC , accused De Lima of “mishandling” the INC issue which he said led to the rally that worsened the already bad traffic situation in Metro Manila.
Sen. Grace Poe is a disappointment. Asked in a forum in Nueva Ecija on the INC isyu, she kept on inserting the Mamasapano massacre. Was she saying that De Lima should not touch the INC kidnapping issue until after the Mamasapano case is resolved which could be forever?
She justified the mob in front of the DOJ office in Padre Faura saying,”.. huwag rin nating mamaliitin ang importansiya ng relihiyon. Para sa akin ang mga tao na yan ang dinidepensahan nila ay ang kanilang paniniwala. Nirerespeto natin yan at kailangan pangalagaan din ang kanilang mga karapatan.”
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas tiptoed recognizing the rights of the INC members to stage a street protest but expressed concern about the public inconvenience that is is causing.”While all citizens have the right to be heard and to peaceful assembly, the exercise of these rights cannot impinge on the rights of others or cause inconvenience to anyone,” he said.
President Aquino has not said anything but the fact that he is not reining in De Lima in her investigation of the conflicts in the INC, even putting the expelled INC minister Isaias Samson under the Witness Protection, is a plus for him.
But neither is he being strict on INC ‘s flouting the law and causing so much difficulty to the public.
The reason for the “presidentiables “ cautious (except for Binay) reaction to the problem which the INC has become is the supposed bloc votes that the religious sect can deliver.
It is well known that every election, the INC gives out a sample ballot with names of the candidates to their members. Many candidates plead to the INC leadership to be included in that list.
There’s no official number of INC voting members but a 2001 elections exit poll survey by Social Weather Station for ABS-CBN “found that the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) were solid in voting 8-5 (8 candidates from the administration’s People Power Coalition) and 5 from the opposition’s Pwersa ng Masa) according to their hierarchy’s advisory..”
According to pollster Junie Laylo, then with SWS and now has his Laylo Report, said in 2001:”
The INC’s vote strength is only about 1.2 million or 3% of the total electorate, but with a conversion rate of 68-84% that translates to about 800 thousand to 1 million votes for Senatorial candidates endorsed by its leadership. As a solid voting bloc, INC votes can be very influential in helping borderline candidates for the Senate.”
That’s true. INC votes are helpful for those who are in the number 11, 12, and 13 in the senatorial race. But if you are in the top five, INC’s non- support would not push you out of the Magic 12.
In the presidential and vice presidential race, if the contest is very tight, every vote is important. Thus, the pilgrimage of the candidates to the INC headquarters every elections.
But the INC vote cannot propel a candidate lagging behind to number one. In 1992, INC supported Eduardo”Danding” Cojuangco , who was only number three after Fidel V. Ramos and Miriam D. Santiago.
Roxas in 2010 is another good example of the non-potency of an INC endorsement. He was supported by INC but Binay won over him by 727,084 votes.
INC actually rides with the trend in making their list. Winnability, not integrity or competence, is the primary basis for inclusion in the sample ballot.
One good example is Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV in 2007.
Trillanes, who was in detention then and with not much money for his campaign, was not given a chance to win. Thus, he was not included in the INC list. But he won.
In the 2013 elections, the INC included Trillanes in its list.
De Lima, if she runs for senator, will surely not be in the INC list.
De Lima might find comforting the paper delivered by SWS’ Mahar Mangahas in Egypt in 2009 on “The Challenge of Election Surveys:SWS experience in the Philippine.
Mangahas said some of SWS’ findings in the 2007 elections was “Command voting” is limited.
“Of every five voters, four say ―most people here decide by themselves who to vote for and only one says that ―most people here are just told by the leaders whom to vote for,” the pollster said.
The current crisis in the INC all the more undermines the myth of its “solid vote.”
In my opinion, if INC respect separation of state and religion, the leadership should not promote or endorse any candidates much more provide a list for their member to consider when voting! Their leadership are taking advantage of their members belief in the INC as a religion. With its members encourage to attend rallies, it only shows that their leadership is using its members to pressure the government from investigating the case. If I am a free thinking member, i would leave this group. Its much more holy for me to be free than being used. Even GOD have given us freedom to choose! Brainwashed by their leadership making them look like fools at the expense of many!
Ang buhay nga naman,,,,Cory’s People’s Power will her Yellows out of power……
Ang buhay nga naman,,,,Cory’s People’s Power will get her Yellows out of power……
The yellows are in power longer than Marcos and going 30 years with nothing much to show for it! And people are still buying it inspire if all the miseries and many direct and indirect taxation a. I really doubt your opinion. No one can change anything. It doesn’t matter who will win come 2016. Most of them are funded by the same and have to live with it. They are yellows at the end of day!
Tsk tsk. Grace Poe was well on her way to a touchdown and she dropped the ball. She needs a new coach
Walang nilalabag ang DOJ. Ginagampanan lang ng DOJ ang tungkulin na protektahan ang tao na inabuso kung inabuso man. Hindi pinakikialaman ng DOJ ang usapin patungkol sa relihiyon ng Iglesia, nakikialam ang DOJ dahil may nagreklamo. Kahit ano pang relihiyon basta may reklamo ay tungkulin ng DOJ na resolbahin.
Nang mapatalsik si Marcos akala ko wala ng uto uto na mga tao na magrally, mayroon pa pala. Sinasabi na dahil napatalsik si Marcos mayroon ng kalayaan ang mga tao. Kahit ayaw ng INC member na magrally kung gusto ng pinuno na magrally ay walang magagawa kundi sumunod, sa ganun na paraan wala pa ring kalayaan dahil may sinusunod pa rin ang ibang mga tao.
Ang mga oras na nilaan sa pagrally kung trinabaho ay magkapera pa sana o kung di man tinapos ang gawain ay matatapos iyon. Walang mapapala ang mga INC kay De Lima dahil tama ang ginawa ni De Lima.
nag-lead lang survey si Grace ay umakyat agad sa ulo ang air. ito ba ang president na gusto nyo. tama si Mam Ellen na ang Mindanao problem ay bata pa ako ay nan diyan na. marami ang nagsabi na kung Llamanzares ang ginamit ni Grace na name ay hindi ma papansin. dahil sa name Poe ni FPJ kaya sumikat si Grace. Remember si kabayan Noli de Castro ay number one din, pero may nagawa ba Noli para sa Bayan ? wala, saludo ako kay Noli as a broadcaster.
The Comelec should be instructed to come up with a full page paid common advertisement 4 Sundays preceding the second Monday of May (election day) on English newspapers and Tagalog tabloids. All representatives of every religious sect and denomination should have a signature on the paid advertisement saying that “Block voting is not allowed and anathema to the freedom to select qualified candidates, without coercion or threat of eternal damnation if the religious sect member should follow the dictates of his/her conscience, without going against the religious sect doctrines of their religious sect even if secretly the religious hierarchies are ordering their bobobotante members to vote for candidates sanctioned by their supremos”??
The evil of block voting personified. i.e. in a not too far province with eleven towns north of the metropolis, a gubernatorial candidate and a mayoral candidate in a town with 15,000 votes, the scenario will be like this. Every town with at least 1,000 qualified voters of this notorious religious sect were ordered to vote for their endorsed gubernatorial candidate, hence, before the start of the actual voting, the endorsed gubernatorial candidate have already 11,000 plus votes and the mayoral candidate where the religious sect have at least 5,000 qualified voters have already 5,000 plus votes before the start of the election.
Where then is the freedom to choose qualified and competent elective officials? We are at the mercy of this bobotante who are captive of their religious belief and coerced by their supremos who are money making ventures indeed. Where can you see the brazen politicos who are endorsed by the notorious religious sect and the same politicos are also seen by the faithfuls vote buying openly in the presence of the local city/town Police Chief and Comelec Registrar.
How will you reconcile the sentiment of a mere religious sect member who was told to exercise block voting and vote for a particular gubernatorial candidate and mayoral candidate but see actually the same personages carrying out vote buying in his/her town/province one week before election day. How do you then reconcile how this sect member will react?? Naturally he/she will vote out of his own conscience and not the brazen order of his/her equally money faced religious supremos?? The worst scenario is he/she will also received the P500.00 /head cash money in selling his/her vote but if he/she is patriotic enough, will receive the P500.00 but still vote for his/her own candidates..
We hope we can elect the true leaders of our country without coercion by any religious sect since the govt. is supposed to be political and religious tenets should not contravene what is supposed to be a political exercise, in the first place.
Natatawa ako sa circus ng INC rally. Lahat gustong makisawsaw for the bloc vote..hahaha!
Atty.Trixie Angeles wrote in a Manila Bulletin article that Grace Poe could be liable for a graft and corruption for what the neophyte said.
In today’s news naghahabol siya kasi may deal daw ang gobyerno at INC leadership kaya natapos na ang rally.
Of course, this was Roxas’ big chance to propose a deal that INC would ink. hehe!
In short, Binay, Poe. Duterte, Bongbong…whoever wants to become president can say goodbye to the 2 million INC votes. 🙂
Winner is Roxas and de Lima… yey!
Teka, teka. teka….despite the INC bloc vote natalo pa si Mar ni Binay sa VP. Meaning the 2M votes can not make him president, kulang na kulang because the husband of Korina is too unpopular.
Yup, agreed….. über uberrated ang INC clout!
That’s what I have been saying all along. The INC’s basis is not who is most sipsip to their cult or the biggest contributor, but whoever is the vote topnotcher. They announce they “anointed ones” at the last minute. By law elections are held on the second Monday of May. They distribute their sample ballots the last day of “samba” which is the Sunday service.
They failed with Danding. The next elections, they rode on the bandwagon of Erap and shunned the VP candidate Gloria but she won. They kicked-off EDSA3 to restore Erap to power until sharpshooters in Malacañang killed 3 of their members. They were humiliated but they voted the midget anyway in 2004, of course with a little help from Garci and De Venecia and the SAF troopers in ballot-switching and from Kiko Pangilinan and Raul Gonzales and Congress and…
In the next mid-term senatorials, Recto, Sotto and Mike Defensor failed despite the much-vaunted Iglesia nod.
In 2010, another bandwagon candidate and his VP was endorsed, but only Noynoy pulled through, Roxas lost despite being “blessed” by both Quiboloy and Manalo. So did their endorsed local candidates like Ruffy Biazon and Quezon Governor Nantes.
Their party-list group Alagad (Remember Rodante Marcoleta who endorsed GMA’s sham impeachment to prevent the filing of real complaints for 1 year?) had their biggest vote in the Hello Garci elections of over 400,000 votes (also padded?) that gave them 2 seats in 2007, down to 1 when their votes tallied about half of the previous then lost all of it in 2010 when they could only muster less than 30,000 votes.
Roxas’ bad experience with the INC endorsement is probably the reason why among the presidentiables, it was only him who was not pandering to the blind flock and all the others were pretty accommodating and supportive of the stupid rally (called “vigil” because rallies were prohibited by INC dogma). Roxas even warned them not to impinge on other’s rights. Duterte should’ve just shut his trap had he calculated the rallies were ending the next day.
The gov’t gave the INC a rope long enough and they sure hanged themselves with it. You can’t call it a victory when De Lima has even announced she’s not stepping down. Even if she does, it would be because she is filing her candidacy. How gullible can they get.
Slip of The TonGuE:
“…but whoever is the survey topnotcher…”
Madali lang palang magnakaw ng pera na hindi ka uusigin o makukulong. Iyon ang maging INC ka at kahit milyon milyon ang ninakaw mo hindi ka hahabulin ng gobyerno kasi pag hinabol ka ay nariyan ang mga member ng INC na magrally lang para sila ang dapat humusga sa INC member na nagnakaw. Kasi sabihin hindi dapat makialam ang gobyerno sa INC.
Sunod na mag rally ang INC dapat linisin ang mga kalat. Para naman patunay na mabubuti ang kalooban. Malaking perwisyo ang naidulot na pag rally dahil nagkaroon ng matinding traffic. Pero okey lang iyan kasi sanay na mga uto utong tao o tao sa luzon ng traffic.
Ang Pilipinas lang siguro ang Bansa na may malaking takot sa isang religious group. Ang mga moro gusto na magkaroon ng bangsamo basic law para may sariling PNP, comelec o ano pa o kaya sariling tagausig ng nagkasala na moro. Ang INC parang ganun din yata ang gusto nila. Paano kung ang ibang religious group ay magkasala ng malaki ang member at kung usigin ng gobyerno ay magrally din mga kapwa member. Sa ginawa na iyan ng INC ay gagaya ang ibang religious na magrally din kung may hindi gusto na ginagawa ang gobyerno. Hindi rin dapat paniwalaan na may solid vote ang kung anuman na religious group. ISTORYA LANG IYON, WALANG MAKAPAGPAPATUNAY. MABUTI KUNG BINUBUKSAN MGA BALOTA PAGKATAPOS NG ELEKSYON. Ang daming nauuto sa solid vote. ISTORYAHEE……..
Kayong lahat na na comment dito sa site alam ko may mga pagkakasala din kayo sa Panginoon. Ang mga salita na hindi maganda ay labag iyon sa batas ng Diyos. Inaamin ko na minsan masakit ako mag salita. Bakit hindi niyo subukan pakinggan ang kantang Natutulog Ba Ang Diyos. Natutulog Ba Ang Diyos (Tribute to the survivors of the Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh4Bgf9mZN4
The INC were out to blackmail the gov’t. Realizing that they were made fools, 9 locales (lokal sa Tagalog) in Laguna disobeyed and ignored the order to assemble in EDSA. As late as Monday night, the leaders in EDSA were being fed excuses of traffic, police blockades, diverted roads, whathaveyou when a lot of others like Laguna simply did not heed the orders. The leadership cannot ex-communicate them all. They were too many.
To save face, they announced the end of the “vigils” the next morning because in their planned display of strength they instead showed their weakness.
After continuously chanting “We are one” it must’ve dawned on them the opposite is happening and their end is imminent. May pacountdown-countdown pa na 10, 9, 8… etc hanggang “one”. Tapos “we are one” naman ang sigawan. One million. Sana. Inaasahan nila ISANG MILYON ang dadagsa. Mag-uumaga na, 20,000 pa rin ang bilang.
It was a show of farce.
They had all the reason to continue their rally until Monday, August 31, when the INC celebrates a very special event. It is the day Ka Erdy Manalo died. Why then should they stop their vigil?
I’m beginning to believe “Samson and The Leila” has just brought down their temple.
the blind flock. sila ang mga tupang kahit dalhin sa katayan ay buong amo pang luluhod sa mga namumuno sa iglesia na umaastang diyosdiyosan.
ang ipinangangaral at gustong sundin nila ay hindi ayon sa nakasulat sa banal ng aklat kundi sakim na layon ng mga taong hangal.
ano ba ang kapalit ng solid nilang suporta sa alinmang kandidatong humihingi ng tulong kapag sumasapit ang eleksiyon?
tengkyu lang?
imposible.
“…….ay hindi ayon sa nakasulat sa banal NA aklat kundi sakim na layon ng mga taong hangal…..”
As always, everything has and ending…even Pnoy bashing also has an ending…and must end…
From A. Molina:
I truly believe that INC is in a wrong position at this point. Their chant of so called separation of church and state is nowhere anywhere near from the current situation at hand. Besides, separation of church and state truly exist, otherwise, the government will collect dues on them (taxes , etc.). As far as I know, the entire Philippines is under and should adhere to the rule of law. If they are not interfering with the government, why is it that when election comes, they will endorse a particular politician? Its really not an issue for them whoever it is being elected, right? I truly believe that INC is a spoiled brat that they will go to streets just to make a statement. Boasting to the public that they are superior (in terms of numbers).
Just as everybody else, I am a Catholic who just happen to have relatives who are INC members. One of them told me that they have members who are, and I quote, “GOONS”. If you could recall when the very first time when this issue of “hostage taking” came out, some people on the window wrote in the placard that a black tinted Toyota Innova/Revo is heavily armed. And their very own Edwil Zabala admitted on live TV that there are some guns registered under their name (INC). My question is, WHY? Why such a religious sector have some guns registered under them? On the streets? To think that only members of media are on the location and they are not under attack. Maybe this is the reason why some INC members are afraid to come out. Maybe its true that Bro. Eli Soriano is in Australian (if I got it right) because of some safety issues.
Another thing madame, I would like to mention Atty. Ferdinand Topacio. He knew all along (for he is a lawyer) that when a crime is reported, regardless if it is church or state matter, the rule of law will prevail, and yet, he is also behind the “kaguluhan” in EDSA. Good thing that their protest has permit, otherwise I think it is a ground for disbarment because it is panlilinlang sa taong bayan that results to massive traffic jams. He should have told his members about it to avoid this and yet he convinced his fellow members that what they are fighting for is right in an interview on TV. If he is a true professional, he should just stand down. Instead, he was one who lead them.
they are considerably few compared to Catholics. however, Catholics enjoy more freedom than INC.