INC’s Lingap helps 120,000 people
ABOUT 120,000 people received free dental and medical services as well as bags of rice at the Iglesia Ni Cristo’s anti-poverty drive called LingapLabansa
Kahirapan held at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila on Sunday.
INC General Auditor Glicerio Santos Jr. said the project has been “part of the church’s resolve to tap its resources and do something concrete to combat poverty here and around the world.”
The Lingap project started in 2009 under the leadership of INC Executive Minister Eduardo Manalo.
The number of participants to the INC event was placed at 150,000, according to Supt. Igmedio Bernaldez of the Manila Police District.
Bernaldez said the event was generally peaceful.
The MPD deployed over 540 personnel from its Explosive Ordinance Division, District Intelligence Division, Special Reaction Unit (for terrorist threats), Medical Team, District Mobile Force Battalion, Police Stations 1,4,5,6,10,9 and
Unit. Personnel from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority were also deployed.
The INC deployed diagnostic equipment during the event for laboratory tests such as blood count, blood sugar test, blood typing, pregnancy test, urinalysis, ultrasound, 2D echo, as well as 12-liter ECG (electrocardiogram), all of which were given for free.
The INC, in a statement, said LingapLabansaKahirapan activities have been organized and staged in the United States, Canada, Northern and Southern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and key areas in the Middle East including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
In June, the INC capped a Lingap saMamamayan activity in Africa.
In May, the INC bagged three Guinness World Record awards from its Worldwide Walk Against Poverty for the biggest charity walk in a single venue attended by 238,171 INC members in Roxas Boulevard, Manila, the making of the longest human sentence formed by 23,235 participants, and the creation of the largest picture mosaic by 9,000 members.