INC officials non-committal during Roxas-Robredo visit

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Administration bet Manuel "Mar" Roxas II on Saturday (April 9) said religious sect Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) did not give its commitment to support him and runningmate Leni Robredo after their meeting last week.

Roxas said he and Robredo simply presented their platforms and priorities to INC officials without any direct talks about politics.

The Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer said INC will eventually come up with a decision on who to support in the May polls.

"Ang support naman ay kusang ibinibigay. So, binigay namin ang aming plataporma at alam naman nila ang aming track record. At sa nakatakdang panahon ay magpapasya din sila," said Roxas.

[Translation: Support is voluntarily given. So, we laid our platform and they know our track record. They will decide in due time.]

In 2010, the INC endorsed the candidacy of then LP bet Benigno Aquino III, who nabbed the presidential seat.

The Social Weather Stations (SWS) said data from the 2010 elections show INC accounted for 4.25% or 1.53 million of the roughly 36 million votes cast for president and vice president. SWS estimated INC voters would reach 1.7 million by 2016.

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