Church and state separation: The Case of Iglesia ni Cristo Bloc Voting System and Its Effect on Philippine Politics

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the impact of INC bloc voting on Philippine politics. It studied the historical background of religion-state relationship in the Philippines. It also discussed the Iglesia ni Cristo background, its organizational structure and their bloc voting system. The success of INC bloc voting was determined by providing an analysis on how the INC leaders command influence over the members. The INC bloc voting was also evaluated based on the bible and the constitution. Various churches provide different interpretations of the bible regarding the bloc voting. The Philippine Constitution, on the other hand, provided no provision that was violated by the practice of bloc voting. The researcher used primary and secondary sources in acquiring data and information needed to complete the thesis. She interviewed INC members and a leader, a political science professor and a lawyer to provide information that was not available from printed materials and documents. The researcher upon evaluating all the data and evidences came up to the conclusion that INC considerably influences Philippine politics primarily in election through the institution of bloc system of voting.