What is the truth behind the circulating text message purportedly from INC?

Photo by Top Gear Philippines

Yesterday afternoon, a Friday (also a payday and the start of another long weekend), EDSA froze to a stop after members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo took to the historic highway supposedly to call for “the separation of church and state.” Apparently, all of this stemmed from the Department of Justice’s “meddling” into the affairs of the notoriously clannish religious group, after an expelled INC official had exposed anomalies happening inside the church.

To be honest, we don’t really give a hoot about INC or what its members are squabbling over. But when they hold hostage a major chokepoint on EDSA without prior notice–on a day when hundreds of thousands of Metro Manila residents just want to go home and rest after another week of hellish traffic–we believe we need to say something.

And that something is: Conduct your “religious” activities whenever and wherever you want, but please do so without inconveniencing others. The world need not stop for your issues.

Anyway, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we want to share what is supposedly a text message circulating in the last few hours (see above). The text supposedly calls on INC members to troop to EDSA and paralyze Metro Manila traffic so the government can feel the group’s collective force.

INC detractors are saying said message came from the INC leadership. But as some people have pointed out on our Facebook page, the text message’s provenance seems suspect since INC spells “Cristo” with a ‘C’ and not with a ‘K’.

Also, somebody sent us another screenshot (see below), this time showing a message from a Facebook page called “ONEwithEVM.” EVM, if we’re not mistaken, are the initials of INC head Eduardo V. Manalo, who is reportedly one of the subjects of the expelled minister’s allegations.

In the message, the INC flock is warned against unofficial text messages designed to divide the organization.

So there.

Still, the bottom line is this: Please do not block our way. Do whatever the heck you want, but don’t keep us from heading home and seeing our families. Lounge in the middle of the highway all you like, but don’t stand between us and our beds after a stressful workweek. We’ve earned our rest.

Source: topgear.com.ph