You reap what you sow

Self-serving politicians turned the Iglesia ni Cristo into the force that it is today, and politicians’ responses to the ongoing developments will shape the future of the INC.

For too long, politicians pandering to the group that is widely known to vote as a bloc have placed selfish interests above the public good in dealing with the INC. Appointments, promotions and government deals pushed by the INC and granted by administration after administration have doomed any effort to create a merit-based society.

The INC has developed such clout that cops, soldiers, prosecutors and judges join the group to get an edge in promotions and assignments. Several of these individuals don’t leave their original Roman Catholic faith, pandering to both groups depending on what is convenient for career advancement.

INC leaders can correctly point out that they don’t force public officials to grant the group’s wishes. Public officials are the ones who have turned the group into a formidable, untouchable force, making pilgrimages to INC leaders especially when elections approach.

This is again evident today, as politicians with an eye to the 2016 elections ignore the millions who are suffering from the horrid traffic jams to win brownie points with the group. Several thousand protesters are blocking some of the busiest streets in Metro Manila? Mayors roll out the red carpet and tell INC members to go ahead, block all the streets they want, as long as they want. Never mind if people in Metro Manila were already in a “fatal mood” from the traffic gridlocks that seemed to get worse daily even before the INC decided to occupy crowded Padre Faura in Manila and then EDSA.

In the land of people power, there is deep tolerance for freedom of expression and assembly and the free exercise of religious beliefs. But one person’s rights must be balanced with that of another and managed like traffic flow, which is why laws are passed. Every right carries with it certain responsibilities. This social contract must be honored if freedoms are to endure. Absolute freedom is anarchy.

The INC members at least moved away from the EDSA Shrine at the corner of Ortigas and the historic avenue (some returned last night, disrupting an ongoing mass at the shrine), and transferred to the equally traffic-choked EDSA-Shaw Boulevard junction. There was some confusion last week when INC members began gathering near the Catholic shrine dedicated to a saint and a popular revolt that the Iglesia did not support. As anti-INC social media rants made clear, everyone knows the group is not Catholic and does not recognize saints.

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When presidents pay regular visits to the head of the INC rather than the other way around, you can understand why the group will have its own unique interpretation of freedom of religion and separation of church and state.

As the placards are showing, the group thinks the constitutional principle of separation of church and state means it is outside the jurisdiction of the state. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front would love to have this interpretation applied to the Bangsamoro entity if it is ever created.

The principle is in fact the best argument for Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s investigation of a complaint for serious illegal detention filed by several members expelled recently by the INC.

It is a serious offense so the INC concern is understandable. Businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles is serving a life term not for plunder in connection with the pork barrel scam but for serious illegal detention of her cousin Benhur Luy for three months.

The INC, however, also has a point in accusing the Aquino administration of selective justice. For this, daang matuwid has only itself to blame. There are people who agree with the INC when it asks if the Department of Justice doesn’t have many other matters to attend to.

Still, INC leaders will have to devise other means of registering their protest, and show that they respect the law. Any mass action needs mass support, and the INC won’t get it by making millions stew in the polluted streets of Metro Manila for five to six hours, which was how long people got stuck along EDSA last Friday night, with the gridlocks continuing over the weekend. Irate motorists and commuters might have ranted against the incompetent government and its traffic managers, but they also ranted against the Iglesia ni Cristo. The INC needs a media-savvy public relations crisis manager.

Because the INC mass action has become a horrendous public nuisance, De Lima is actually enjoying a burst of popularity even among some of her detractors.

If she stands her ground, De Lima might even make it to the Senate in 2016, where she can sponsor legislation lifting tax exemptions and other perks for religious groups, and tightening laws against influence peddling.

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P-Noy is not known to be enamored with the INC. The group was loyal to the end to dictator Ferdinand Marcos when Corazon Aquino was leading the opposition.

While the INC is believed to have gone for P-Noy in the 2010 elections, the hiss from the Palace is that he felt the support was belated and split (some went to closest challenger Joseph Estrada), coming when surveys showed an Aquino victory to be certain, and that his lead indicated he would have won anyway even without the INC vote.

In the early days of his presidency, P-Noy reportedly tossed out many INC recommendations for appointments to the thousands of vacancies in his administration.

The tension continues, as the Department of Transportation and Communications scrapped decades-old supply contracts granted over and over to the same company that is reportedly backed by the INC. But the Iglesia appears to have also won some battles under daang matuwid, as in the Bureau of Customs where, if John Sevilla is correct, an INC-backed appointment compelled him to quit as commissioner.

A president limited to one term should not be worried about antagonizing one group in the interest of the majority. A president is also enforcer-in-chief and should lead in upholding the rule of law.

But in his final year, P-Noy must also worry about his BFF and anointed successor, whose poor ratings can get a massive boost from INC support. Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas has supervision over the Philippine National Police and, nominally, over the mayors of Metro Manila, and this is a chance for him – as Sen. Grace Poe has openly asked him – to show some leadership. But you can see Roxas walking on eggshells on this one.

P-Noy, who can’t seek re-election, surely understands that he’s President of the nation and not just one group. In dealing with this latest crisis to hit his administration, precedents are being set. The nation will reap what is sown.