Hmm, why does it smell like 2028?

In what looks like images from an election year, Vice President Sara Duterte and her political godmother, former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, paid separate courtesy calls on Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) executive minister Eduardo Manalo. Duterte visited Manalo on October 2, followed by Arroyo four days later, October 6.

The primetime newscast Mata ng Agila (Eagle’s Eye), which airs on the INC-owned Net25, reported on these visits Monday, October 9. 

The Net25 report did not state the agenda of the meetings, and only said that Manalo warmly received them in his office. The report said the country’s leaders visit the INC Central Office whether it is election season or not, “upang magbigay ng kortesiya” (to pay courtesies) to the INC executive minister.

Their visits come at a time when:

• The approval ratings of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Duterte have taken a double-digit plunge, according to Pulse Asia. (However, Duterte still enjoys higher ratings than Marcos – 73% as opposed to Marcos’ 65%.)
• Duterte is drawing flak for requesting P650 million ($11.43 million) in combined confidential funds for both the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
• Arroyo is recently seen in photo ops with a strange mix of personalities: Rodrigo Duterte, Tito Sotto, and Bong Go in one photo, and Leni Robredo in another. 
• Cracks are showing in the Marcos-Duterte Uniteam, especially after the House of Representatives – led by the President’s cousin, Martin Romualdez – unceremoniously removed Arroyo as senior deputy speaker in May.

The INC, a homegrown religious organization established in 1914, is courted by politicians because its 2.8 million members (around 2.6% of predominantly Catholic Philippines) are supposed to vote as a bloc every election. In return for their votes, politicians are believed to give favors to the church and its members when it comes, for example, to government appointments. 

It’s the kind of clout the INC needs after internal problems – particularly infighting in Manalo’s family – beset their church starting 2015.

Data show, however, that INC members do not vote as a solid bloc. In the 2016 elections, only 77.2% of INC members said in a Social Weather Stations (SWS) exit poll that they voted for Rodrigo Duterte, whom the church had endorsed. 

Besides, as SWS president Mahar Mangahas pointed out in 2016, INC is “notoriously slow in deciding for whom to vote.” In fact they release their list of endorsed candidates only a few days before election day – when the survey front runners are clear. Why? Your guess is as good as ours.

But, as they say, “politics is addition.” And optics, too. – Rappler.com