Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), a religion founded in the Philippines in 1914, bought a 25-hectare ghost town in Connecticut, the INCTV News Weekend reported on Saturday.
The said town is called Johnsonville Village, a former milling community in East Haddam, CT.
The INCTV report said that the church acquired the property in July. In a text message to GMA News, Edwil Zabala, a spokesperson for INC said they paid almost US$1.9 million for the town.
According to latest government data, there are about 2.5 million Iglesia ni Cristo members in the Philippines with 6,000 churches in 100 countries around the world.
Glicerio Santos Jr., the general auditor of INC said that the property was acquired to aid in the church’s initiatives for the poor like eco-farming projects.
In 2011, INC bought an abandoned town in South Dakota for US$700,000.
In 2015, Angel Manalo, an expelled senior member of the church and brother of the church’s executive minister Eduardo Manalo, accused Santos of corruption.
The corruption accusations prompted the INC to expel members including Angel, his wife, and other personalities who exposed the alleged anomalies.
Angel questioned the construction of the 140-hectare Philippine Arena in the province of Bulacan, the world’s largest indoor arena worth US$200 million that was funded by donations from church members.
Many government officials are members of the church. The INC is not shy about influencing government and practices bloc voting, instructing its members to vote for political candidates that the church endorses.
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