The public has been focused on the horrendous traffic jam caused by the rally and the prospect of this leading to a people’s march towards Malacañang. What they fail to comprehend is the import of the rallyists’ cry.
As I write this piece the rally instigated by the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) is entering its third day. Neither rain nor shine has diminished the fortitude of the rallyists. The group is not calling for the resignation or ouster of President Bongbong Marcos like previous people’s dissent did.
The INC is protesting what they brand as “selective justice” --- the Ombudsman’s threat to file a non-bailable case of plunder against Senator Rodante Marcoleta, the first Iglesia Ni Cristo member elected to the Senate.
The public has been focused on the horrendous traffic jam caused by the rally and the prospect of this leading to a people’s march towards Malacañang. What they fail to comprehend is the import of the rallyists’ cry: “Selective justice is injustice.”
Senator Marcoleta is being charged for failing to declare P75 million from private donors in his 2025 campaign statement. The Commission on Elections has already ruled that the senator did not commit an election offense for his failure to disclose the P75-million campaign donation in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures since the donations were made before the campaign period.
This issue was a legally settled matter. It suddenly surfaced, the Senate minority claimed, as another attempt to decimate the number of senators who are against the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.
“Selective justice” is the core issue here. Former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan, who was the head of the DPWH when over a trillion pesos was released for ghost flood control projects, was among those facing plunder charges.
The INC is telling us: Here is Marcoleta being accused of plunder for ₱P75 million in private campaign donations. Secretary Bonoan, charged for over P1 trillion in alleged ghost flood control projects, was just removed from the plunder list by the Ombudsman.
The INC is rallying against selective justice, underlining the “plunder over undeclared private donations versus no plunder charges for P1 trillion-plus in ghost flood control projects.”
Why does P75 million in private donations trigger immediate plunder charges against Marcoleta, while over P1 trillion in an alleged public fund anomaly sees Secretary Bonoan delisted from the plunder case list?
Until that question is addressed, we shall not see the resolute members of the INC calm down.
In time the other religious denominations and we bystanders will realize that what the INC is fighting against is selective justice. The rally staged by the INC is just the beginning.
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