Is Ping the Iglesia’s choice?

Has the bloc-voting Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) decided to support the presidential candidacy of opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson?

Journalists who have been following Lacson in his provincial sorties have noticed that the senator and former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) has been paying INC "district ministers" visits in their kapilya (church) or headquarters.

In Lucena City in the province of Quezon, he dropped by the district minister’s headquarters for a 30-minute courtesy call-dialogue. He did the same in Lipa City and Batangas City in Batangas, in Davao City, Kidapawan, North Cotabato, and in Baliuag, Bulacan, last Friday.

Lacson, together with his lone senatorial candidate, House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla Jr., would disappear for 20 minutes to 30 minutes from his motorcade for the courtesy calls, some of which are listed in the campaign schedule that his staff routinely furnish the media pack doggedly hounding him.

However, none of the 10 or so journalists and broadcasters covering his campaign have had the chance to ask him why he makes it a point to call on the local INC minister or tagapangasiwa and whether such calls have the blessings of higher headquarters.

In some towns, the mayoral candidates Lacson has endorsed are Iglesia members.

In the 1992 presidential elections, the influential INC supported businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., who lost the presidency to former defense secretary Fidel Ramos.

In 1998, the religious sect backed then Vice President Joseph Estrada, who beat the candidate of then President Ramos, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. The INC had been supporting Estrada since he was mayor of San Juan.

Two weeks ago, President Arroyo, on the urging of her campaign spokesman Mike Defensor and without the hordes of bodyguards, dropped by the main INC kapilya along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City, but failed to meet its top leaders.

Sources said it’s too early to tell who among the presidential candidates would win the support of the INC.

According to conservative estimates, the huge religious sect can deliver at least two million votes. The INC is known to vote as a bloc.

Lacson has repeatedly said his poor showing in surveys does not dishearten him. He has consistently held the fourth slot, with the first three occupied by his opposition rival, movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., Mrs. Arroyo and former senator Raul Roco.

According to pollsters, the former PNP chief has a loyal following comprised of between eight and 10 percent of survey respondents.

Such loyal support, together with some financial contributions, is what keeps him and Padilla afloat, Lacson told journalists in Guiguinto, Bulacan on Friday.

"I do not believe in surveys. If I believe in them, I would not have been elected senator (in 2001). I would have backed out months before the election, since polls placed me nowhere near the winning circle of 13. What is important to me is how people receive and welcome me (in my sorties), and so far, I think I enjoy a level of support that is higher than what the surveys show," he said.