PNP: INC prayer rally at Luneta ends Luneta

The Philippine National Police have reported Tuesday afternoon that a big crowd of 160,000 people belonging to the religious group, Iglesia ni Cristo, have flocked the Quirino Grandstand in Manila for a grand evangelical mission.

In a press briefing at the PNP Headquarters in Camp Crame, PNP Spokesperson Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. the situation at the Quirino Grandstand has been "peaceful."

At least 500 police officers from the National Capital Region Police Office and Manila Police District were deployed before dawn Tuesday to maintain security around the Quirino Grandstand, he said.

INC members started arriving at Luneta as early as 11:00 a.m. for the 5:00 p.m. event.

Also, an estimated 100,000 INC members have also gathered at the Tarlac Provincial Recreational Park for a similar activity.

Meanwhile, INC lay leader Moises Tolentino said the big gathering will be "singing praises, (hearing) sermons and other topics to be discussed." He said social commentaries should be based on religious orientation.

Tolentino said there is no politics in its nationwide evangelical mission.

Also, INC spokesman Bienvenido Santiago said the INC has been holding such gatherings in various places on a regular basis since the time of its first Executive Minister, Brother Felix Y. Manalo, who established the INC's first congregation in the Philippines in 1914.

"This religious activity is one of the means by which the Church propagates the teachings of God in the Bible that members of the INC believe to be essential for man's salvation," he said. - PIA — ARA