Manila is in a pretty tough situation right now. We’ve got people from Iglesia Ni Cristo (one of the major religions in the country) who are causing great public disturbance to the city and to most of the National Capital Region as they are staging unsanctioned rallies in various places around NCR - except in Manila because their rally there has been approved by the city government there. Nevertheless, even their rally in Manila has caused a great deal of disturbance as they are rallying near the Philippine General Hospital and the University of the Philippines - Manila campus. Note that the area of those two institutions are not appropriate venues for large scale rallies, even leftist groups in our country know better than to stage rallies there (despite a huge amount of leftist group members being from UP Manila). They are rallying near PGH and UP Manila because the Department of Justice office is along that area.
The reason of the rally is because members of the INC are really upset with the Department of Justice launching an investigation on a large-scale controversy that had something to do with the INC. Sure, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima is not exactly trustworthy to most Filipinos but neither are the INC. Just so that you know, INC also makes up most of the bloc voting activities in the country during elections so that’s another problem - they’ve manipulated the country’s political system longer than Justice Secretary De Lima did so from there, you already know which side is more problematic (but it doesn’t mean we don’t find Justice Secretary De Lima problematic as well).
The rally taking place in Manila has been extended by the city mayor to September 4 which is a working day so for most of the working days next week, we’ll be experiencing unnecessary public disturbances brought by INC and that itself is a pretty bad thing.
They even went as far as stationing in the EDSA Shrine for their rally before being dispersed by police. EDSA Shrine and the buildings surrounding it are the property of the Roman Catholic Church Archdiocese of Manila despite of it being open to the public - and by the public, meaning the public who actually come there to learn more about the EDSA Revolution of 1986 and/or to pay their respects in the shrine and clearly and not people who are there to cause havoc.
There is no problem with being a non-Catholic and entering a Catholic Church (EDSA Shrine is also a Church aside from being a monument), there’s only a problem if you’re there to cause havoc which is what INC is doing because they were not their to do a peaceful demonstration but to do the opposite of it. It’s okay to stage demonstrations there as long as you keep it peaceful as so that you do not disturb people who come there to learn more about EDSA Revolution or to pray.
When the Reproductive Health Law was passed here, the Catholics who were not in favor of it did not resort to unnecessary public disturbance. When the Bangsamoro Basic Law was delayed (and is still delayed) so many times, we did not see any Muslims cause unnecessary public disturbance.
This just goes to show that there are certain people in our country who still think that just because they’re affiliated with a major religion here means that they have the privilege to cause unnecessary public disturbances “in the name of God” when in fact, like everyone else here who are affiliated with major religions, none of us are and should be above the law.
So to all of us here in Manila, please stay safe especially if you’re nearby UP Manila and PGH and if you’re a foreigner, you might want to keep in touch with your respective embassies in case something horrible happens. Most of all, please #PrayForManila. We hope that we can get over with this unnecessary public disturbance and that no chaos would ensue from this.
