Thousands of Iglesia members determined to stay put in EDSA

By the looks of things on Sunday, the thousands of Iglesia ni Cristo followers who flocked to Edsa starting Friday night, would not be taking their protest somewhere else even as the deadline of their rally permit neared.

Late Sunday afternoon, the protesters, waving flags and chanting “INC! INC!” fanned out from Shaw Boulevard to other parts of Edsa, occupying the northbound roads of Ortigas flyover and Boni Avenue after rally organizers asked them if they agreed with the police estimate of the crowd.

The crowd roared “No!” and followed the directive of the protest leaders for those settled along Shaw Boulevard to move to Edsa.

As of 5 p.m., the police pegged the crowd at 4,000 but the INC insisted that the gathering of their brethren was more than that.

When asked for INC’s own crowd estimate, the church’s spokesperson Edwil Zabala replied in a text message, “If they want to claim that the crowd’s size is 4,000, so be it. I just wonder why they insist on what is obviously an illusion on their part.”

The Mandaluyong City government had allowed the INC to stage their protest on the intersection of Edsa and Shaw Boulevard, which could accommodate up to 4,800 people, until 12 a.m. Monday.

In the thick of their protest activities Sunday afternoon, one of the organizers of the rally came up to the stage and appealed to followers not to believe rumors circulating on social media that they have left Edsa.

The organizer also informed the crowd that the INC was seeking another permit from the local government so they could continue their protest at a still undisclosed area just near the Edsa-Shaw intersection after the expiration of their current permit.

In a phone interview, Zabala said INC members continued to flock to Edsa to protest Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s handling of the illegal detention complaint filed by expelled INC minister Isaias Samson Jr. against the sect’s governing council.

“It has always been about Justice Secretary Leila de Lima…from the very beginning, this is a question of separation of Church and State,” said Zabala when asked if the INC had other demands from the government.

The protest action was not meant to oust or remove any government official from his or her position, maintained Zabala.

But he said the actions of De Lima and the “higher ups” working behind her were a form of persecution and harassment against the INC for being perceived to be unsupportive of her candidacy in the 2016 elections.

“What is the history of this? They ousted a Supreme Court justice, jailed three senators and vilified the reputation of the vice president…one thing in common is that they are not members of the party supporting the candidacy of Leila De Lima,” Zabala told reporters.

“That’s what they also want to do with the INC,” he said.

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