Members of the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ), a conservative Filipino Christian sect, march on a Manila street February 15, 2014 to raise funds to help millions of homeless survivors of super Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the central Philippines on November 8, 2013. The typhoon, one of the strongest to ever to hit land, left 6,200 people dead and nearly 2,000 others missing while destroying more than a million homes. AFP
MANILA, Philippines–Police are “hopeful and positive” that the Iglesia ni Cristo would set a new world record in its worldwide walk for victims of super typhoon “Yolanda” on Saturday.
Superintendent Marcelino Pedrozo, deputy overall commander of the event, told INQUIRER.net that the crowd estimate has reached “almost a million” as of 2:45 p.m.
“If we base the count on the volume of crowd from the starting line up to the finish line, we can say that the crowd estimate is almost a million,” he said.
The organizers marked the starting line on P. Ocampo street along Roxas Boulevard in Manila. The end of the line, meanwhile, is located on R. Salas street.
But the INC cannot claim the record title until the SGV and Co. Team, which was tapped by the religious sect to determine the total count, complete the official count of the wristbands of those who participated in the walk.
Singapore currently holds the record of the biggest charity walk in the world with its “The New Paper Big Walk” event, which had 77,500 participants in May 2000.
More than 1,000 policemen from the Regional Public Safety Battalion were deployed to ensure peace and order in the event, Pedrozo said.
Saying the INC organized the event “very well,” he said no injuries and petty crime incidents have been reported since the walkathon kicked off early Saturday.
“We are hopeful and positive that the INC will break the record,” he added.
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