‘Keep opportunists out’

Permit granted

The INC obtained a permit for the rally from the Mandaluyong City government on Saturday and sect leaders promised a bigger crowd today.

The permit is good only up to Sunday, but organizers said the rally would last up to Monday.

READ: Mandaluyong allows Iglesia ni Cristo to continue rally until Sunday

In a talk with reporters on Saturday, Zabala said he could not say how long the protest would run, as “permits are usually issued day by day.”

Zabala said the protest moved to Edsa from the DOJ because some INC members had difficulty going to Padre Faura Street, where the protest began on Thursday.

Zabala appealed for public understanding, saying the INC did not want matters to reach this point but it felt that it had to take action.

An INC source who requested not to be identified for lack of authority to talk to the press said the instruction to members from the leadership was to show up at Edsa on Sunday.

The source said there were fewer INC members at the rally on Saturday because it was worship day. There will also be fewer participants today, Sunday also being worship day, the source said.

“The biggest crowd will come on Monday, it being a holiday, following the [instruction],” the source said.

An INC member in Lucena City said on Saturday that “hundreds” of church members from Quezon and the Bicol region would leave for Manila today after worshiping to join the Edsa rally.

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

The source said INC members from Albay province and the towns of Pilar, Donsol and Castilla in Sorsogon province would leave this afternoon for Manila to support church members already on Edsa.

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

Rally permit

Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos Jr. said “all hell broke [loose]” at the Edsa-Shaw Boulevard on Friday night when the INC protesters occupied the intersection.

He said he authorized the rally permit for Saturday and Sunday with instruction to “confine” the rally to that spot to prevent the protest from spilling over to other parts of the city.

Abalos identified the INC official who came to him for a rally permit as Eraño Codera, a member of the sect’s governing council.

Abalos appealed for public understanding, saying the permit at least “set parameters” for the INC rally.

Pagdilao said the police would remain “on full alert.” Erika Sauler and Jaymee T. Gamil, Leila B. Salaverria, Marlon Ramos, With reports from Tina G. Santos, Nancy C. Carvajal, Tarra Quismundo and Jodee A. Agoncillo in Manila, and Delfin t. Mallari Jr. and Mar S. Arguelles, Inquirer Southern Luzon

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