The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) had denied it was engaged in a “political power play” when it launched its “peace rallies” on Jan. 13, 2024, arguing, as INC spokesman Edwin Zabala did, that those rallies were a “very practical” and “moral call” to public officials, in effect telling the Dutertes and the Marcoses to stop bickering. So, the rallies were so non-political that Duterte politicians were present along with other opportunists.
This alone embodies the very political character of those “peace rallies” as the INC arrogated unto itself the role of a “moral conscience” amid the very evident squabble between Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, a frequent visitor at the INC Central Church in Quezon City. In his sermon, Zabala said: “Let’s forgive and forget each other and be united so that we can achieve peace. It takes a lot of work, but if we’re all willing to go back to those basic principles, decency in our relationship with each other, and peace in our relationship with each other, hopefully, things are going to get better.”
If the INC were willing to make peace, then it should also start making peace with those it had expelled, those it had kicked out the ministry for questioning the power of its Sanggunian, the various investments made using church funds, and achieve peace within the Manalo family. Zabala seems to be punching above his weight since organizing more than a million INC members to join the rally is proof positive that the INC wants to tell both the Marcos and Duterte factions that it has the warm bodies that vote as one.
The INC has never taken any position on the basic problems of the Filipino people. Nothing has been said about skyrocketing food prices, the inadequate minimum wage, the grinding poverty that affects 63% of the entire population, the hunger that stalks 76% of the people in Mindanao, the P612.5-million frittered away, and Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio and her “special disbursing officers” (SDO), the military officers who took charge of distributing the confidential and intelligence under the dubious order of Sara, the hundreds of millions of pesos for Sara’s 13 satellite offices and three extension offices, the billions of pesos worth of unused computers and DepEd supplies in warehouses, the low absorption rate of the DepEd budget under her supervision, the questionable approval of the graft-ridden 2025 national budget, the P289-billion in unprogrammed appropriations (UAs), the P26-billion AKAP doleout and others.
If the main concern of the INC was peace, genuine peace, it should have supported the peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP.) The INC has been silent about it since 1986, even as a number of its members had been martyred as New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas in Bicol and other regions. How about the absence of peace in thousands of workplaces, with workers denied decent wages and having to endure substandard working conditions? Many of the exploited workers may be INC members, too, but do they enjoy the freedom to join unions? Then look at the low farmgate prices of palay due to unbridled rice importations and the weird tomato prices at P400 a kilo, and the upcoming crop shortages that would surely lead to price spikes. There is no peace in the belly for the urban and rural poor and the INC cannot minister to their needs with strange “peace rallies.”
The Marcoses and the Dutertes may be squabbling but let them do the fighting since they are warring over who should wield political power, with Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio insisting on her entitlement and her right not to be honest and sincere since politics does not require it. We should not go gaga over what one columnist said was Marcos Jr.’s “temperamental diffidence” and his “overabundance of caution” by not pursuing the battle when he had the upper hand. Let us not overestimate Marcos Jr. If he is not fit to fight, then he should just retreat and give the arena of battle to Sara. If he knows his political interest, then he should have tarred Sara a long time ago. Kicking her out of the National Security Council (NSC) would not zotz her. Call her a raging cow, who has been elated no end by the INC “peace rallies” that she thinks were an endorsement of her nasty behavior.
Marcos Jr. argued that no one would benefit from Sara’s impeachment. Yet, the national coffers would benefit by preventing financial hemorrhage at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the offices still controlled by the Dutertes. Just as taxpayer money could have been saved had Malacanang kept a tight lid on the pork barrel that the bicameral conference committee (BCDC) inserted into the proposed budget. Essentially, the buck should have stopped at the Malacanang desk since the duty to craft the budget had been shifted to the Palace and not Congress. It starts from the executive department, with all other entities having to kneel before the budget department to get their special allotment release orders (SAROs) or notices of cash allocation (NCAs).
The truth about Sara’s shenanigans and the fiscal abuses committed by Congress and abetted by Malacanang are all serious crimes that should be laid bare and brought to the courts. The tragedy of this political war is that it is apropos to the US saying that “when shit hits the fan, it rains on everyone.” Sara’s hanky-panky did not escape the eagle eyes of the Makabayan Coalition and the legislators simply followed the document trail and found that there, indeed, was cavalier treatment of public funds, similar to what the Dutertes have been doing in Davao City post-1986. So, first things first. The Filipino people, contrary to INC’s jeremiads, have the right to impeach not only Sara but whoever else has plundered their money. To reject this is to coddle criminals in the guise of promoting “peace.”
