Iglesia member from North: ‘We’re tired but happy’ and ‘stronger now’

DAGUPAN CITY – Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) members from Pangasinan province began their long trip back home on Monday following the announcement of INC leaders ending the five-day “peaceful assembly” in Metro Manila.

“We are tired but happy. At least we were able to show our support for our church. We are stronger now,” said an INC member from Sta. Barbara town who asked not to identified in this report.

But a former Pangasinan town councilor, who was in Metro Manila on Monday morning, said droves of INC members were arriving in a shopping mall on Edsa.

“I suspect, they are from [northern Luzon] as many are Ilocano- speaking. They are going inside the mall but I overheard someone instructing them to be in their rides at noon,” said the former councilor in a text message.

He said INC members appeared to have just arrived in Metro Manila and may have only heard about the INC announcement on their way to the capital.

The INC member from Sta. Barbara said their members traveled by batches to Metro Manila starting Thursday.

She said her batch left her town at 7 p.m. on Sunday and proceeded to the Edsa-Shaw area, where most of the INC members massed up. She said the church shouldered the travel and food expenses.

“It’s as if we went there to watch a concert,” she said.

But another INC member from Dagupan City said what was important was that they were able to show their faith and stand as true children of God.

“I joined them in our fight for our faith. We are moving as one body,” he said.

On Sunday, an INC official said members either traveled to Metro Manila using their own vehicles or through rented vans and buses.

Another INC official in Pangasinan said church members were ready to mass up in front of the offices of DOJ in Manila and ABS-CBN television station in Quezon City had the protest continued on Monday.

The official said the group from Pangasinan would have stayed in Metro Manila until 1 p.m. Monday as the mini-bus hired by the church was good for only 24 hours. The bus where the church official and her family boarded left the capital Lingayen town at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The INC official said her group boarded the last trip coordinated by the church, although some members left Pangasinan later Sunday and early morning Monday using their own vehicles.

Pangasinan is divided into three INC ecclesiastical districts, with an estimated 100,000 members in 2010, according to the Philippine Statistical Authority.

In Central Luzon, Chief Supt. Rudy Lacadin, regional police director, said around 3,000 INC members from the region left for Metro Manila on Sunday night.

They left in batches of about 200, riding mini-buses and jeepneys, identified by INC flags.

Lacadin denied reports that police escorted vehicles of INC contingents from the provinces.

“That’s not true. Our policemen were on the road for monitoring, not for escorting [anyone],” Lacadin told the INQUIRER by telephone. Gabriel Cardinoza and Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon