MANILA City Mayor Joseph E. Estrada will lead the “Worldwide Walk to Fight Poverty” on May 6 in a bid by the organizers—the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) and Felix Manalo (FYM) Foundation Inc.—to beat the global record they set four years ago in terms of the number of participants.
The local chief executive is positive this activity will surpass their 2014 Guinness World Record, with 175,509 people joining the walkathon.
The charity walk in a single venue benefitted the victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan), which wrought havoc in Central Visayas in 2013.
Proceeds helped finance the INC’s first-ever resettlement and eco-farming community in Leyte—the most devastated province by the strongest typhoon that ever happened in history.
The event was recognized on record as “the largest charity walk in 24 hours in multiple venues,” with 519,221 delegates worldwide.
The first and historic global walkathon by INC and FYM was held across 13 time zones, in 29 countries and involving 135 sites, the last of which was in Hawaii.
For this year’s upcoming event, 1 million people are expected to join since it will be held again simultaneously in other countries.
Estrada takes pride on the inclusion again of the city of Manila for this joint activity to be held along Roxas Boulevard.
Expecting the success of this event, he said this will be another source of pride for the Philippines.
To help achieve it so, the mayor ordered the Manila Police District to cooperate with the INC and the FYM Foundation to ensure the orderliness of this activity and the safety of the participants.
Image credits: Alysa Salen