INC members from Lucena, Bicol to join brethren in Edsa rally

Philippine National Police is on full alert status in Metro Manila following the staging of a protest by members of Iglesia ni Cristo at the Edsa shrine. REM ZAMORA

LUCENA CITY—“Hundreds” of members of the Iglesia ni Cristo from Lucena City and Bicol region are set to travel to Manila early on Sunday to join their brethren in the ongoing protest in Edsa.

“After our ‘samba’ we will immediately travel to Manila to join the silent protest in Edsa,” a INC member in Lucena City disclosed to the Inquirer on condition of anonymity.

INC members in Bicol from the provinces of Albay, and the towns of Pilar, Donsol and Castilla in Sorsogon, on the other hand, will leave on Sunday afternoon for the nearly 12-hour trip to Manila to lend support to thousands of their brethren now converged on Edsa-Shaw in Mandaluyong City, according to another church member who also requested not to be named.

Both sources said the order came from their respective local INC administrations but they did not know if a similar directive was given to other INC churches in Southern Tagalog or Bicol provinces.

For those coming from Lucena, the members will depart for the 3-hour trip by car to Manila after their 5:30 a.m.  “samba” or prayer service, according to the source.

He said they were asked to bring extra clothes, umbrellas and other antirain protection gears for an indefinite stay in Manila.

“We were also asked to bring some money for our personal needs,” he said.

Several buses were hired by the local INC leaders to ferry them to Manila, said the Lucena INC member.

Those coming from Bicol would also be boarding buses chartered by the church, the INC member from Legazpi City said.

But the sources refused to disclose the number of church members who will be joining the protest, except to say there would be “hundreds” of them.

When asked why he was joining the protest in Manila, the INC Lucena member replied: “I’m a loyal soldier. I have an obligation to defend my church.”

The INC member said he would  be going to Edsa with his wife. “We will be leaving behind our children. The weather is unpredictable.”

When the internal riff among INC leadership broke out in July, most of the INC members in Lucena interviewed by the Inquirer said they would remain loyal to the sect leadership.

“Among INC members, unity is sacred and basic. That is based on the Bible,” the member said. -Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Mar S. Arguelles