New religious movements in the Philippines are having an impact on politics, but they are also likely to feel the repercussions of this contentious election year, writes Yuchen Ma in the online journal Religions (April 7). While the Philippines is still a strongly Catholic country, new religious movements (NRMs), often based in Christianity (unlike other countries), have risen to include about 10 percent of the population. The most prominent of such movements in the Philippines remains the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), which holds strict anti-Catholic and millennialist teachings, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), and the Jesus is Lord Church Worldwide. Ma also includes the charismatic El Shaddai movement in the Catholic Church as an NRM because of its structure that is independent from the hierarchical church. The focus of NRMs on mainly religious issues was broadened after the EDSA Revolution in 1986, when more institutional space was given for marginal religious groups to participate in politics and society, as seen in the recent activism among these groups on everything from anti-bureaucracy efforts to anti-gay rights.
Apollo Quiboloy, leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ movement.
NRMs have formed political parties and promoted their members for congressional and government positions. Yet recent developments may challenge their political position. Conflicts within the INC have exposed the fragility of the denomination’s administration, leading to the “erosion of its political and social influence.” NRMs may also become implicated in political corruption and conflicts through their activism. The KOJC’s founder Apollo Quiboloy has come under attacks in the Philippines and the U.S., first for his support of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who was recently arrested under charges of murder, and then for being charged himself with human trafficking before turning himself in for arrest in late 2024. Ma concludes that as the 2025 midterm election approaches and as the conflict between the Duterte and Marcos families intensifies, the Quiboloy case could create a “chilling effect” on the political engagement of other NRMs and their agendas, exacerbating “power imbalances between competing political factions.”
(Religions, https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/4/471)
