LP standard-bearer Mar Roxas and vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas and his vice presidential running mate, Leni Robredo, apparently met with the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) leadership on the same day that rival presidential candidate Grace Poe confirmed having met with a high-ranking minister of the bloc-voting religious sect.
READ: Poe: INC visit meant to share platform of governance, not ask for endorsement
Robredo said she and Roxas met with INC leaders on March 30 but would neither confirm nor deny whether the pair had been assured of support by the influential group in the May elections.
“We visited (the INC), Secretary Mar and I,” Robredo told Inquirer.net after the live INQ & A with the vice presidential candidates on Thursday.
Asked what they discussed at the meeting, she said: “It was just like the usual (meeting). We didn’t talk about the election.”
She said the meeting occurred just before Roxas went to speak at a forum organized by the Makati Business Club (MBC) and the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) at a hotel in Makati City.
Robredo said only she and Roxas went to the INC, as no one from their campaign went with them. The meeting lasted for “about an hour,” she said.
It could not be ascertained if the meeting took place at the INC Central Temple in Quezon City.
Sought for confirmation, INC spokesperson Bro. Edwil Zabala did not deny that a meeting did take place but declined to comment further.
“I’m sorry. I have no comment on that,” Zabala said in a text message.
Candidates openly seek the endorsement of the influential sect, which is known to vote as a bloc and is believed to carry a voting power of about 2 million votes.
The Aquino administration came under fire from members of the religious group during a four-day mass protest that thousands of its members staged in August last year to protest then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s handling of an illegal detention case brought against the sect’s leaders by an expelled INC minister.
Roxas, the then interior secretary, angered the protesters, who occupied a portion of Edsa for four days, when he appealed to them to obey the rules and not cause inconvenience to others.
READ: Roxas: No special treatment for Iglesia ni Cristo/Roxas to INC members: Exercise your rights without causing inconvenience
“As in all protest actions, preserving peace and order with maximum tolerance will be practiced by all responding policemen. While all citizens have the right to be heard and to peaceful assembly, the exercise of these rights cannot impinge on the rights of others or cause inconvenience to anyone,” he told the INC members.
Poe sided with the INC, saying its members were just “defending their faith” and “protecting their rights.” She was branded as an opportunist by angry commuters.
READ: I was just defending everyone’s rights–Grace Poe
Known supporters of another presidential aspirant, Vice President Jejomar Binay, lent their support to the INC protesters, even showing up at the rally venues. TVJ