MANILA, Philippines – Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

That was the warning of Bishop Dimver Andales, pastor of the decades-old Lapasan Baptist Church in Cagayan de Oro City, in a Sunday evening sermon on May 30, 2021.

In this sermon, he talked about the COVID-19 pandemic and how God in the Old Testament “used pestilence, plagues, to judge people.” “Is COVID-19 a sign from God?” he asked, as he challenged his followers to change their ways and remain watchful about the religious leaders they follow.

Andales warned that “religious counterfeits appear in every generation,” then slammed “so-called Christian leaders who depart from the Christian faith,” supporting abortion and the “redefinition of marriage.” “There are those who pretend to be sheep but are actually wolves,” the pastor declared.

This sermon, which lasts around 55 minutes and is uploaded on the church’s website and even on Spotify, is a sample of the Baptist preacher’s tough-talking persona that has attracted followers in Cagayan de Oro for more than three decades.

Andales is the leader of the Lapasan Baptist Church, a 37-year-old religious organization that boasts of more than a thousand churchgoers every Sunday and supports at least 91 missionaries in countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, India, and Zambia. The church is also well-funded. In 2017 alone, the church declared a total of P4.2 million in donations.

The pastor, who ran for public office in 2022, is also a Christian preacher with strong political ties.

Andales is now facing his biggest test after police arrested him Monday, October 16, for the alleged murder of male pageant contestant Adriane Rovic Fornillos in Cagayan de Oro on May 9, 2023. Nabbed alongside Andales was his associate pastor, Jether Nonot.

Andales, 51, is accused of masterminding the death of Mister Cagayan de Oro 2023 candidate Fornillos, 24, due to an alleged love triangle. A social media scandal involving Andales, a married man, has been going viral for months now.

Andales has strongly denied involvement in Fornillos’ murder. 

Mindanao’s biggest Baptist church

The pastor’s church is “the largest Baptist church in Mindanao,” said Manila 6th District Representative Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr. at the kick-off night of the Biblemode Bible Conference on January 9, 2023, in Tatalon, Quezon City.

Lapasan Baptist Church was founded in March 1986, “a month after Missionary Bruce and Jeanne Rice came to Cagayan de Oro from the United States on February 13, 1986,” according to churches.heyplaces.ph. It started as a Bible study group “in a rented house,” became a church in April 1987, and now “has a congregation of 1000-1,200 persons in Sunday morning worship services.”

Abante, one of the country’s most prominent Baptist pastors, said Andales started preaching at the age of 16, and has been in the ministry for 34 years. He introduced the Cagayan de Oro pastor as “a good preacher, a preacher of the Word of God.”

The congressman said Andales, whom he met a few years back, is now a close associate even if the pastor initially heard negative comments about the congressman.

Abante, senior pastor at the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Ekklesia, is a Christian leader who is known to assert religious convictions in the legislature. 

In November 2022, Abante drew flak for his alleged homophobic or insensitive remarks during a House hearing on an anti-discrimination bill. He was also one of the primary authors of a law enacted in July 2022 that declared National Baptist Day every second Thursday of January, a special working holiday.

Abante is a member of the National Unity Party (NUP) that is allied with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez. The NUP is now the second largest contingent in the House after Romualdez’s Lakas-CMD, said NUP president and Camarines Sur 2nd District Representative LRay Villafuerte.

Abante is not the only politician associated with Andales.

In 2022, he ran for 2nd district councilor of Cagayan de Oro City under the ticket of Mayor Rolando “Klarex” Uy. He lost the elections, garnering around 42,200 votes and ranking 14th in the race.

He eventually helped city hall as a volunteer during the early stages of Uy’s administration.

A July 2022 photo, uploaded by the Cagayan de Oro city government, illustrates the closeness of Andales and Uy. The caption states: “A teary-eyed Mayor Klarex Uy could not hold on to his emotions as Pastor Dimver Andales, a political ally, and his choir from the Lapasan Baptist Church serenade the mayor with a birthday song and prayer.”

The mayor’s spokesman, BenCyrus Ellorin, now calls Andales a “former political ally” of Uy.

Close to the kingpin

Before Uy, there was also former Cagayan de Oro mayor Vicente “Dongkoy” Emano.

At the Biblemode Bible Conference 2023 in Quezon City, Andales also recounted his initial meeting with then-mayor Emano many years back, when he invited the local leader to their church anniversary.

Other evangelical leaders had told him, at that time, that Emano was difficult to invite to church services. He described Emano as a political “kingpin” of Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro.

Andales said he persisted, however, and lined up to talk to the mayor and personally extend his invitation. He recounted in a mix of English and Filipino, “I introduced myself, I said Mayor, I am Pastor Dimver Andales of Lapasan Baptist Church…. I had not finished speaking then he told me this: ‘Yeah, I know you.’”

Emano told him he will try his best to attend. Andales did not expect the mayor would show up.

“That was an opportunity for this man to hear the Gospel. I am happy that the mayor I’ve been praying for, for many years, when I invited him to come to our church, accepted Jesus Christ as his savior,” Andales told the crowd in Metro Manila. “Mayor Emano became my friend and I always went to his office.”

Emano was a known political opponent of Uy.

It was a shifting alliance that proves, or at least projects, the pastor’s influence in local politics – and the intractable ties of church and government leaders in a deeply religious country. – Rappler.com