Batas Mauricio
IT may not (yet) be a church-wide uproar, but members of the powerful Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) are calling President Aquino and his government as “traitors” in their Facebook posts, for allegedly stealing their votes for Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Many of the posts are even calling for more forceful action, like barricading the office of the Commission on Elections, premised on the perception that the manipulation of votes–where Duterte and Marcos got zero votes even in municipalities where there are INC members and where administration candidates Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo appeared to be the only ones who got votes–was an act of treason against the powerful Church.
Here are some of these posts, translated to English from Filipino. From Randy Santos: “The Comelec should explain this (the zero votes for Duterte and Marcos in Bohenge Elementary School in Lamitan City, Basilan). Now, we are convinced that electoral cheating occurred in Visayas and Mindanao. Where did the votes of the Iglesia ni Cristo go?”
Santos went on: “We have three locales here in Lamitan City, Basilan. Our votes for Sen. Marcos and Duterte have vanished…” Santos presented photos of tallies from Bohenge Elementary Schools in his post.
Reactions came pouring in. As this column was being written, Santos’s post was shared 7,080 times, while 296 others commented. All expressed not only indignation on what they perceived as an insult to the INC perpetrated by Aquino and his government, but also called for mass actions from the traditionally reserved Church.
From Mymy Alino Mariano: “I call on everyone now to show our true spirit of unity. We should hold rallies now, to protest the theft of our votes.” From JanLeander Metille: “How did they (Duterte and Marcos) get zero votes? Didn’t you know that INC members (in Lamitan City) brave bullets just to worship? It is impossible that they will not be united in voting for our candidates.”
From Joel Arevalo Ramirez: “We cannot allow the theft of the votes of our people and the votes of INC. If no one will complain, nothing will be disclosed. Let us tell the world of the mischief of the Aquino government, and of the treachery of Aquino.”
From Malou Billo Chavez: “It looks like they want us to barricade Comelec once again. Just one signal to all of us and we will be there. We are into block voting, how come our candidates did not receive any votes at all? They are fooling the INC? Let’s see how good they are, even that Leni (Robredo).”
From Jacob Ascutia: “This should be disclosed by the media. It is impossible that our candidates will get zero votes. There is at least one INC member in the place so it is not possible that our candidates will have zero votes. Let us come up with a page that will broadcast the cheating.”
E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com
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