At around 11 a.m., mourners outside the INC Central Temple on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City broke into loud sobs, while they watched a video screen showing the interment of Manalo, the executive minister.
The wailing lasted around five minutes, causing motorists stalled in traffic to roll down their windows to check what was happening.
Rains failed to disperse the crowd that occupied the stretch of Commonwealth Avenue from UP-Ayala Technohub all the way to Tandang Sora Avenue.
A 57-year-old woman even stuck it out despite not being able to see Manalo’s remains since the start of the wake.
“I have been waiting in line since Wednesday but I wasn’t able to get in,” said Rosario Espino, an INC member based in Montalban, Rizal, since 1992.
She said some of her neighbors, however, were able to get inside the Central Temple and view the remains of Manalo.
1.5 million to 2 million
Chief Supt. Elmo San Diego, Quezon City Police District director, estimated the crowd to be between 1.5 million and 2 million Monday.
“The event was orderly, very peaceful, there were no untoward incidents,” he told reporters in a phone interview.
Supt. Constante Agpaoa, QCPD Station 6 commander, said mourners were scattered from Philcoa to Luzon, the Visayas and University Avenues.
Agpaoa said some of the mourners had been there since Sunday afternoon.
Some mourners came from Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Ilocos Norte and Cagayan, according to the pins they wore on their shirts as they walked through the crowd.
Of the thousands who endured a fickle weather, only a few were able to get inside the INC complex to personally witness the interment.
Color-coded ribbons
Only those with ribbons pinned to a photo of the dead INC leader were allowed to enter the complex, according to an announcement over a public sound system.
The announcement said the ribbons were color-coded—white for the immediate family, green for pastors and ministers, purple for workers of the Central Temple and light blue for church servers.
Members of the INC’s Security Community Action Network provided a human barricade at all the main gates of the church compound to prevent members who were not given ribbons from gaining entry.
Four video screens
The INC hierarchy set up four video screens outside the Central Temple so that mourners and members who could not get inside the temple may be able to watch the interment ceremony.
One video screen was installed in front of the Central Temple, one on Central Avenue, and two on Commonwealth Avenue.
During the interment ceremony, some INC members closed their umbrellas so that other people behind them could see the screen better.
Other onlookers decided to take shelter under two pedestrian overpasses on Commonwealth Avenue, where they could be protected from the rain and at the same time have a birds’ eye view of the mammoth crowd.
The closure of Commonwealth Avenue from Elliptical Road to Luzon Avenue caused heavy traffic buildup on the eastbound lane of the avenue that lasted more than an hour after the interment.
Supt. Rudie Valoria, Quezon City Traffic Enforcement Group head, said that at least 5,000 vehicles were parked on Commonwealth Avenue since Sunday.
Two helicopters alternately hovered over the INC central complex Monday morning.
ONLY the burial of martyred Sen. Ninoy Aquino and that of his wife, former President Cory, would equal the number of people that attended the burial and wake of Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) executive minister Erano “Ka Erdy” Manalo.
Not even the attendance at the wake and burial of Jaime Cardinal Sin could compare with that of Ka Erdy whose remains were entombed in the INC main cathedral in Quezon City.
His followers so loved and respected him that they braved the rain and the heat to send him off.
All the INC members who attended Ka Erdy’s burial and wake were genuine in their grief.
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