Iglesia ni Cristo member denounces lobby report

MANILA — Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) votes as a herd in elections, but it never dips its fingers in politics, a member of the religious sect said yesterday.

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, an INC follower, said he was “offended” and “outraged” by the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s report on Saturday that INC officials had been seeing senators to lobby for the acquittal of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“Except to vote as one during elections in accordance with our fundamental beliefs, we do not intervene in politics, and it is offensive to say otherwise,” said Topacio, a lawyer for Jose Miguel Arroyo, husband of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Topacio said that while he was not authorized to speak for INC, “I believe I speak for most of the brethren who are outraged that the church was placed in a bad light on the basis of unsubstantiated rumors. We wished that the Inquirer would have left the church out of the disinformation and psychological warfare campaigns being waged in connection with the Corona impeachment trial.”

The Inquirer reported that INC officials Dan Orosa and Resty Lazaro had met discreetly with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada during the month-long Lenten break of Congress to plead the case of Corona, whom INC followers supported.

A legislative source told the Inquirer that two other associates—Manny Cuevas and Victor Cheng—had been requesting to meet with other senators in recent days to lobby them for Corona’s acquittal. /INQUIRER