Being the
last day of the stressful work week, every working Filipino looks forward to
Fridays. In Metro Manila, traffic on a Friday night becomes tight, but who
would mind? Friday is when people distress, go out with friends, and unwind.
And if the end of the working week falls on a payday, the more they want to go
out and have a good time.
But the 28th
of August, a Friday payday, was something Filipinos in the Metro probably won’t
forget. While everybody was out having a
good time, Iglesia Ni Cristo, one of the bigger religions in the Philippines, asked
their members to head to EDSA to express their angst and sentiments regarding
the government, most particularly DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima, meddling on the
on-going issue between Iglesia Ni Cristo and the expelled minister Isias
Samson, Jr. By 9:00 PM, EDSA Shrine north bound and south bound service roads
were no longer passable.
Image source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/
For motorists
and commuters, the Iglesia Ni Cristo rally was really devastating. EDSA’s
traffic has always been terrible to begin with, and with thousands of INC
members blocking the road, there was no way vehicles could move from one point
to the next. And that did not occur on Friday alone, as the influential group
staged a rally in the major thoroughfare for five consecutive days. Could you
imagine the suffering motorists and commuters had to go through for five
consecutive days? That was way beyond terrible.
Image source: newsinfo.inquirer.net
The 5-day
protest of Iglesia Ni Cristo members affected not just the traffic, but the
lives of people passing EDSA. And of course, the ones affected had the social
media as their avenue for expressing their disgust over the matter.
“Sana naman nagbigay ng daanan ang INC sa mga tao, mga taong
pauwi galing trabaho tulad ko. okay naman po kahit walang masakyan. kaya ko
pong tiisin ang maglakad ortigas hanggang boni. pero yung bagay na wala man
lang madaanan ang mga taong pagod sa trabaho, masasabi ko po na ang ginawa niyo
ay walang karespe-respeto sa ibang tao. hindi niyo po pag-aari ang EDSA. at mas
lalong hindi ito kataas-taasang hukuman. may respeto po ako sa inyo. kayo po,
may respeto po ba sa amin?”
Image source: Facebook
And just recently, Teddy Locsin blogged about a woman who
died because the ambulance taking her to the hospital could not make it to
through the heavy traffic caused by the Iglesia Ni Cristo protest. And that
there were actually hospitals that turned down the request for ambulance if the
ambulance had to pass through EDSA, or the roads where the protest was being
staged.
Image source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/blogs/opinions/09/03/15/more-killed-traffic
After the 5-day protest has ended, reports shortly circulated
that the government and Iglesia Ni Cristo had an agreement that led to the
cease of the rally: the resignation of DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima. Looked the
powers of Iglesia Ni Cristo won, but Mar Roxas, Interior and Local Secretary,
denied the rumors, while the fierce De Lima said she will not resign, or she
will but not at the moment, on a notably toned-down attitude. The INC rally has
already mellowed, but the reactions of people towards the rally that started on
that Friday payday has not died down up to now, most especially that the
Filipino people were left hanging on what the “agreement” between the
government and Iglesia Ni Cristo was all about.
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