On yesterday's events at Quirino Grandstand

Now that the Iglesia Ni Cristo's Grand Evangelical Mission at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park is over, I think it's worth clarifying the circumstances around the event and contextualize how media organizations treated the story in the days leading up to Tuesday.

Most media outfits have prominently and ill-advisedly angled the GEM story on the Church's alleged support for impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona. This angle has little basis in fact, but the newspapers and TV stations ran with it anyway, probably because it was an easy way to get hits and readers.

Reports have also frequently taken to calling the gathering a "prayer rally"—a term the Church has not used in recent memory. Maybe newsrooms haven't done away with the term because another religious group known for more frequent massive gatherings at the grandstand uses it.

The fact is that the event is what the Church calls it—a Grand Evangelical Mission, where members invite friends and loved ones to listen to the teachings that the INC espouses in a bid to attract converts to the faith. The GEM is no new thing. It is a cornerstone of the Church's missionary activities. The INC has been conducting evangelical missions such as this one since Brother Felix Manalo began preaching the Church in the Philippines in the early 20th century.

True, the Church has not conducted a missionary activity of this size and magnitude in recent years, which is another point reports have used to justify the Corona support angle. Mainstream media has failed to properly contextualize the gathering in this regard. At the beginning of the year, the Church leadership declared 2012 the Year of Intense Propagation of the Gospel (Filipino: Taon ng Puspusang Pagpapalaganap ng mga Salita ng Dios) to ramp up its missionary efforts as the INC approaches its centennial anniversary in 2014. The massive GEM, held not only in Luneta but in several other sites across the country, is in line with this year's theme, and not with any partisan political issue.

Anyone who might have still been speculating about the political intentions of the gathering should know that throughout the one-and-a-half hour event, there was only hymn-singing and a study of the INC's teachings (as is normal in this kind of activity). Not one mention was made about any political issue, much less Corona's impeachment. Any argument about a politicized INC gathering should by now be dead in the water.

I think the intention of the event can be better seen through the experience of tour guide Carlos Celdran, who was "surprised and pleased" at the atmosphere during the event. "You guys truly are a show of force. Disciplined, United, Dignified and EGALITARIAN," Celdran said on his Facebook page. "You have a lot to teach us all about being Filipino."