(Eagle News) — Mandaluyong City mayor Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr., has agreed to extend the permit of the peaceful assembly of the Iglesia Ni Cristo until Monday morning, Aug. 31, as thousands upon thousands of INC members came to the EDSA rally.
Hundreds of thousands of INC members have come along EDSA to be in unity with the INC Church Administration. They came from districts of the INC from northern and Southern Luzon, with many of them starting to arrive only on Sunday night (Aug.3o) after they have finished their worship service and other Sunday church obligations.
Members of the INC delegation from Quezon and Laguna, have started walking from Estrella street as of 1 a.m.
The delegation from Cavite, for instance, have started walking starting the Baclaran-Pasay area.
In Ortigas, INC members who came from Northern Luzon, particularly from Pangasinan, Benguet, and La Union, also had no other resort but to walk starting from the Santolan area.
Some have reported that they had been barred by police barricades in some areas. But the INC members, who wanted to take part in the rally, did not allow them to be deterred by even these police barricades.
All over the country, thousands of members of the INC have also staged simultaneous peaceful assemblies in their provincial centers.
The INC members’ cry was for religious freedom — for the government not to interfere with how the INC Church Administration was running its own affairs.
This came about as the Department of Justice, particularly Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima, has made special moves to consolidate complaints filed against the INC leaders, particularly members of the INC’s Sanggunian or Council of Ministers of INC Executive Minister Eduardo V. Manalo.
Malacanang has earlier instructed the DOJ to continue with the investigation against the INC Church ministers.
Just before midnight on Sunday, a video of the INC Executive Minister officiating a worship service was shown advising INC members to be strong in the faith to trust in God in whatever hurdles they would encounter in their life.
