By Diego Morra
The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) has apparently failed to provide its leaders and members with the “kodigo” outlining what to say in their prolonged “surprise” rally at EDSA and at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila. At EDSA, one rally leader threatened to stay at the protest venue “hanggang hindi nagre-resign si Bongbong Marcos!” The call for the President to resign has aged badly since it was unveiled in 2023, when Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio slammed then Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez as “tambaluslos,” the very same man he had praised to high heavens for ensuring her victory as vice president in 2022.
From a much-adored ally who spent time and money but lost his common sense in pushing Sara’s campaign, Romualdez became an ogre in less than two years. Meanwhile, from a lawmaker known notoriously for his *logorrhea, then Rep. Rodante Marcoleta jumped into the senatorial race in 2025, and eventually won, helped enormously by the INC, whose leaders cut deals with local candidates to get their support in exchange for their backing Marcoleta, whose campaign promise was to provide households with P2,000 monthly as subsidy for electric bills.
Of course, nakuryente lahat dahil sa nabokya ang pambayad sa Meralco. But give it to the INC, which has become more of a military organization deeply embroiled in politics and electoral campaigns, for making strategic investments on an asset like Marcoleta, whom its leaders think would be shoo-in as vice president should the devil succeed in forcing Marcos to resign and Sara the **Irascible is crowned. The EDSA rally and the Liwasang Bonifacio assembly are proof positive that the INC is working in tandem with the Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio faction in snatching political power by kicking out Bongbong without getting their noses bloodied.
The INC is not bringing in their warm bodies in exchange for nothing. There is quid pro quo for their endorsement, as what a late religious leader targeted by the INC said. In the case of Quezon City, it is public knowledge that the INC demands that the police chief be their member. INC businessmen have also earned a pile from government contracts, from license plates to driver’s licenses, to the supply of armored personnel carriers (APCs.) Other wealthy churches have scrapped investments in companies belonging to the military-industrial complex (MIC) in the US. Curiously, the late US President Dwight Eisenhower called it the military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC).
Bloc voting, which has no biblical basis, has become a cudgel for the INC. Under this doctrine, INC members cannot use their conscience in choosing whom to vote. There is no free will, no “one man, one vote” principle that is standard for democracy. This leads to politics of “utang na loob,” with politicians corrupt or not indebted to the INC. But mind control is not supposed to be the moral and ethical basis for choosing elective officials. In other countries, bloc voting is banned and those engaging in it are taxed heavily. In Japan, heavy financial exactions by the Unification Church, known better as the Moonies, has led to its losing the status of a legitimate church. Furious at his mother’s donating huge sums to the Moonies, a Japanese man shot dead a former prime minister on a campaign stop. Moreover, why would anyone with a brain allow Executive Minister Eduardo V. Manalo or his subalterns to choose his preferred candidate?
The system of bloc voting has also been politically profitable for INC candidates like Marcoleta. By promising political rivals their voting bloc, Marcoleta, the INC senatorial bet won in municipal, city and congressional races in 2025. The idea is to talk to all candidates, promise them the moon in exchange for supporting Marcoleta and they secure a big slice of the vote. The bloody truth is that the INC only supports candidates with higher odds of winning. Thus, morality, ethics, clean record and public service have nothing to do with INC’s choosing the “right” aspirant. One Metro Manila mayor recalled that the INC never backed him in any election but its ministers were quick to claim that they did. His response? Instant dismissal of political scammers and no cash, no concession for the “kapatiran.” Hindi nachicharon ng mga ministro ng INC ang alkalde.
With Marcoleta in danger of being arrested for plunder, indirect bribery and corruption for accepting P30-million from Mike Defensor, P25-million from Joseph Espiritu and P20-million from Aristotle Viray when he was still a congressman, but the purported “gift” never materialized in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) but which he now claims to have used up for “pre-campaign expenses.” For all his ***sciolistic protestations, Marcoleta flunked the basic legal test: He doesn’t understand that under Republic Act No. 7080, it is irrelevant whether the money he had accumulated was “private fund” of public cash. The point is that it enriched him and he used it for purposes other than what the law allows.
Basic arithmetic shows that P75-milliion is more than P50-million, the minimum amount that entitles the respondent to be accused of plunder. The facile INC minds would have insisted that private money cannot be covered by laws covering plunder, graft and bribery laws. What have they been smoking? This is the kind of thinking to keep the flock docile and abiding by the INC motto “Obey and Never Complain,” which is far worse than the standard military admonition “Obey first before you complain.” Under such dogmatism, the INC is producing an army of automatons, “protesters” who cannot quite grasp what the INC really wants with the ****fashious declarations of INC spokesman Edwil Zabala and the *****limmers who spout slogans they do not understand. There is a clear separation of church and state under the Philippine Constitution. When the state sees that what purports to be a church is abusing its prerogatives and forcing the state to follow its will, the state must eventually act. Morons and clowns must not exercise political power. #
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WORDS OF THE DAY
Logorrhea – Pathological, uncontrollable urge to talk excessively.
Irascible – Easily angered, quick-tempered, or highly irritable.
Sciolistic – Someone characterized by superficial, shallow, or pretended knowledge.
Fashious – Troublesome, annoying, or tricky.
Limmer – A scoundrel, rogue, or mischievous person.
