MANILA – Religious sect Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) gave its support on 12 senatorial candidates, majority aligned with the administration, for the 2019 midterm elections on Monday.
The INC endorsed nine senatorial bets from Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) party and three other independent bets.
Among the HNP supported bets were Cynthia Villar, Christopher “Bong” Go, Ronald dela Rosa, Imee Marcos, Francis Tolentino, Pia Cayetano, Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Ramon Revilla Jr., and Jinggoy Estrada.
INC included Grace Poe and former senator Lito Lapid, both supported by the National People’s Coalition, and re-election hopeful Nancy Binay in its list.
INC did not endorse any senatorial candidates from Liberal Party’s “Otso Diretso” slate.
Majority of the candidates if not all were among those who occupied the top 12 spots in various popularity surveys, conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia Inc.
The senatorial bets were informed by INC on Monday and the religious sect distributed their sample ballot during Wednesday’s worship service.
The INC endorsement is a much sought after by the candidates, whether running for national or local positions, because of the sect’s vaunted bloc-voting power of around 2-million voters. /PN
