u/waray-upay

INC often compares Felix Manalo being the Messenger with three major biblical figures, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul.

So let's compare how they died.

Jesus Christ

Jesus was crucified and executed.

> Matthew 27:50 > > “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.”

John the Baptist

John was beheaded on the order of Herod.

> Matthew 14:10 > > “And he had John beheaded in the prison.”

Paul the Apostle

Paul's death is not described in the Bible, but studies hold that he was executed by beheading in Rome under Nero.

So the three figures INC compares Felix Manalo with are traditionally associated with martyrdom and execution.

Now let's look at two other biblical figures.

Judas Iscariot

Judas betrayed Christ and later died in a gruesome manner.

> Acts 1:18 > > “With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.”

Then there was Jehoram, the wicked king of Judah.

Elijah warned him of what would happen because of his wickedness.

> 2 Chronicles 21:15 > > “You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.”

The Bible then describes his death.

> 2 Chronicles 21:18–19 > > “After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain.”

Now compare that with Felix Manalo's final illness, according to an INC publication.

Isabelo T. Crisostomo wrote in the May to June 1986 issue of Pasugo:

> “It was only after many years later, in February 1963, that Manalo fell gravely ill. He was rushed to St. Luke’s hospital in Quezon City where doctors decided to remove immediately ‘an intestinal obstruction’. Manalo rejected the surgery, saying, ‘Doctors can cure only those who are not yet to die, not those whose time has come.’ By March 21, 1963, his incapacitation was total and he was transferred to Veterans Memorial Hospital. Doctors operated on him but failed to give him relief from pain. On April 2, the doctors worked on Manalo again to sew back part of his intestines which had burst and hemorrhaged. On April 11, they performed a third surgery on him. It proved to be the last.”

Do you see the difference?

Jesus was crucified.

John was beheaded.

Paul was executed by beheading.

But Judas and Jehoram are described as dying with catastrophic internal injuries involving their intestines.

And according to Pasugo itself, Felix Manalo's final illness involved an intestinal obstruction, repeated surgeries, and intestines that eventually burst and hemorrhaged.

I'm not saying that dying from an intestinal disease makes someone evil. But if we're going to compare Felix Manalo with Jesus, John, and Paul, why not apply the same comparison to the other biblical figures?

I, once again, pulled the full public Iglesia Ni Cristo locale directory for August 2026. It contains 8,768 locales across 198 ecclesiastical districts. Here's what I found:

1. The network is still overwhelmingly in the Philippines

7,305 locales, or 83.3%, are in the Philippines. The remaining 1,463 are spread across 192 countries, led by the US with 351, Canada with 181, Australia with 102, Japan with 86, and New Zealand with 46.

The overall pattern looks much more like a Filipino diaspora network than an evenly distributed global presence.

The districts with the most locales are all in the Philippines. Nueva Vizcaya, Surigao del Norte, Cagayan de Oro City, Isabela South, and Naga City/Camarines Sur each have between 97 and 112 locales.

2. District sizes vary a lot

The 198 districts have an average of 44.3 locales, and a standard deviation of 23.2. Districts range from 4 to 112 locales, while the middle 50% have between 24 and 58 locales.

The difference between Philippine and overseas districts is pretty noticeable.

The 135 Philippine districts average 54.5 locales, while the 63 overseas districts average only 22.3.

The smallest districts are all overseas. Macau has only 4 locales, followed by San Diego County with 8, Silicon Valley with 10, Sabah with 10, Central Valley with 10, Eastern Ontario with 11, Bay Area California with 11, Texas with 12, Alaska with 12, and New Jersey with 13.

So an ecclesiastical district is not really a standardized unit in terms of size. One Philippine district can have more than 100 locales, while an entire overseas district can have fewer than 10.

3. AWS is highly standardized

I parsed 31,119 AWS slots. The median locale has four AWS slots per week, with individual locales ranging from one to 20.

Four schedule patterns account for about 85% of locales. The most common are Thursday and Sunday at 26.2%, Wednesday and Saturday at 24.4%, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at 17.9%, and Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at 16.2%.

AWS is heavily concentrated in the morning and evening. 6:00am and 6:00pm are the two most common times, with almost nothing scheduled around midday.

4. CWS is absent from a significant number of locales

6,397 locales, or 73.0%, have at least one CWS slot, while 2,371 locales, or 27.0%, have none.

CWS is only scheduled on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Most are on Sunday, which accounts for 72% of all CWS slots, followed by Saturday at 27%.

The timing is also highly consistent. 55% of all CWS slots are scheduled at exactly 8:00am, with most of the remaining slots between 8:15am and 9:00am.

5. The WS offered are overwhelmingly in Tagalog

Tagalog appears in 86.7% of locales, followed by English at 16.7%, Cebuano at 16.4%, and Ilocano at 6.0%.

There are also services in Hiligaynon, Nihongo, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Korean, and Portuguese. Outside the Philippines, these generally correspond to the Filipino diaspora and the language of the host country.

6. Contacts are sparse, but the gap is almost entirely PH vs overseas

74.6% of locales list no contact information, so only about 1 in 4 locales is directly actionable for outreach.

But the overall figure hides a huge PH vs overseas gap. Only 11.6% of Philippine locales have contact information, compared with 94.4% of overseas locales.

The overseas entries are also much richer. 88.8% have role tagged contacts and 57.3% list an email address, compared with only 1.7% and 0.5% in the Philippines.

Among the 2,228 locales with contact information, Resident Ministers are the most commonly listed role, with about 955 entries. Other common roles include Head Deacon, Secretary, and Overseer.

I've been tracking historical snapshots of the Iglesia Ni Cristo locale directory and comparing them with the current directory.

So far, I found at least 92 locales that appear to have been removed. The archived snapshots I found cover 2020 to 2026.

These are rough estimates and there may be inaccuracies. The year listed is the last archived date where the locale was observed, not necessarily the year it was removed.

I only included stronger candidates where the locale disappeared and I couldn't find a convincing current match. Suspected renames or spelling corrections and locales that appear to have been promoted from GWS or EXT are excluded.

2020

• Sabang Underground River

2021

• Atyrau, Kazakhstan
• Brighton Beach, New York
• Brooklyn, New York Long Is EXT
• Higashi-Kurume
• Hill Top EXT
• Recodo Bacawan
• Siburan EXT
• Sunny Brooke II EXT
• Waikoloa
• Yangon, Myanmar

2022

• Baguio Heights EXT
• Birmingham, Alabama
• Bonny Island, Nigeria
• Freedom Park IV
• Kapolei, Hawaii
• Little Rock
• Mt. Dora, Florida
• Piqua, Ohio
• Port Area EXT, Panama
• Clarksville
• Longtan, Taiwan
• Spring Valley, California

2023

• Abangay
• Admiral
• Akko, Israel EXT
• Alfonso XIII EXT
• Anguilla Island
• Apia GWS
• Aurora, Colorado
• Baldios GWS
• Bataan GWS
• Basaran GWS
• Barberton, South Africa GWS
• Buenavista Stateland EXT
• Carolina Pacol EXT
• Castro Valley
• Cobre, Panama
• Coral Gable EXT 1
• Crete, Greece
• Damelevieres
• Daang Hari Malipay
• Diego Garcia
• Ellender C. Eclevia GWS
• Gawad Kalinga Village GWS
• Glandang Dako ng Pagsamba
• Greenfield EXT
• Highway Hills CIW / Correctional Institute for Women EXT
• Honiara, Solomon Islands
• Hommersak, Norway
• Iceland
• ICDJ Female Dorm EXT
• Iram EXT Cabalan
• Kenneth EXT
• Kosovo GWS
• La Lechosa, Dominican Republic GWS
• Liwan East GWS
• Liliputen
• Los Andes, Chile
• Medelin, Colombia GWS
• Minaba EXT
• Mykonos, Greece
• Nabuna Extension
• Nagpayong Extension
• Narvik, Norway GWS
• North Shore
• Oregon City, Oregon
• Paarl, South Africa GWS
• Panama City
• Paralimni, Cyprus
• Parramatta, New South Wales
• Port Charlotte, Florida
• QDJ Annex Talipan EXT
• Roxby Downs, South Australia
• Sardis
• Surigao del Sur Provincial Detention Center
• Talima GWS
• West Seattle
• Woodside, New York

2024

• Ba-Ayan GWS
• Bai Saripinang EXT
• Banff, Alberta
• Centennial Hills, Nevada
• Grand Junction, Colorado GWS
• Kerry, Ireland GWS
• Lantian GWS
• Resort Cabcaben EXT
• Sibsibbu EXT
• Sumu-Sumo GWS
• Westmanland, Iceland
• Tamparuli GWS, Malaysia

Caveat

This is directory tracking, not proof that these locales were permanently dissolved. Some may have been merged, transferred, renamed, or reorganized in ways that aren't apparent from the directory.

The 92 figure is a rough minimum based on the stronger candidates I found. There are another 100+ entries that need more scrutiny, but I left them out rather than inflate the number with questionable matches.

The biggest cluster appears around 2023 and 2024, which may be worth looking into further.