SEA OF HUMANITY It was no ordinary Sunday crowd along Roxas Boulevard in Manila as tens of thousands of Iglesia Ni Cristo members join the World wide Walk to Fight Poverty. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) bagged two more world records—the largest charity walk on a single venue and the largest human mosaic—during the Worldwide Walk to Fight Poverty on Sunday.
With the announcement made past midnight on Monday, INC got three official world records for its May 6 event, including the largest human sentence that was announced on Sunday morning by the Guinness World Records, the religious sect said in a statement.
A total of 23,235 participants formed the sentence “PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF IGLESIA NI CRISTO,” beating the 16,550 of previous record-holder in India, which formed the sentence “You can you will” on Aug. 10, 2016.
Largest picture mosaic
The second world record for the day was announced by Guinness adjudicator Lucia Sinigagliesi for the largest picture mosaic formed by 9,000 INC members.
The image was the sect’s green, white and red flag with the biblical golden menorah in the middle.
INC beat the previous record held by Saudi Arabia in November 2017, which had 4,500 participants to celebrate the World Diabetes Day.
Guinness verification
INC’s two other Guinness attempts for the largest charity walk in multiple venues and the most nationalities in a charity walk would still have to be verified by Guinness headquarters, according to Adam Brown, Guinness official adjudicator.
Brown said the passports of those involved in the attempt for the most nationalities in a charity walk still had to be further verified.
The Guinness count for the largest charity walk was based on the wristbands that were placed at drop boxes at the finish line of the 1.6-kilometer walk. The walk started on the Cultural Center of the Philippines grounds in Pasay City.
Manila Police District estimated the sea of people that gathered for the event on Sunday at around 1.5 million.
Wristband count
INC spokesperson Edwil Zabala said that although more people came to join the charity walk, only those whose wristbands had been deposited in the drop boxes at the finish line were counted.
“Some might have not finished the walk or kept the wristband as a souvenir … So only those who surrendered their wristbands were counted,” he said.
The homegrown Christian sect beat its own record on the largest charity walk in a single venue in 2014 after 238,171 INC members took part in the event along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.
It benefited victims of Supertyphoon “Haiyan,” locally known as “Yolanda,” that hit the Philippines in 2013.
Simultaneous events
More than 300 sites around the globe across 18 time zones simultaneously hosted the event.
The INC Worldwide Walk to Fight Poverty was the second global march of the sect.
Sunday’s worldwide walk was for the benefit of poor communities in Africa, said Edwin Briones of the INC public information office.
Some government officials were spotted during the charity walk. They include Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar and Sen. JV Ejercito.
Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, who was invited to be a timekeeper for one of INC’s world record attempts, was also at the event. —TINA G. SANTOS