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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Quiapo Church emerges as 'top influencer' as Catholics go online to observe Lent

Quiapo Church emerges as 'top influencer' as Catholics go online to observe Lent

Published Mar 31, 2021 05:57 pm

Not even another pandemic lockdown could stop Filipino Catholics from expressing their faith during the Lenten Season.

This has been proven by the latest Sentiment Analysis of Facebook posts gathered by research and campaigns firm BluePrint.PH.

(JANSEN ROMERO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)

In a statement on Wednesday, March 31, BluePrint.PH chief executive officer Eero Brilliantes said the sentiment analysis on Facebook reflects the strong Catholic faith of Filipinos, which sustain them to have a positive attitude amid the recent surge of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.

Using big data analytics, BluePrint.PH scanned keywords Holy Week or Mahal na Araw from March 21, 2021 to March 30, 2021, which resulted to 2.7 million datapoints--shares, likes, comments, and reactions--from 10,490 public posts on Facebook.

"While the Catholic church are closed in areas where ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) is being enforced, Filipinos express their strong Catholic faith, celebrate Holy week by hearing online mass, and share Christian inspirational posts on social media,” said Brillantes.

Quiapo Church topped the 50 influencers on Holy week topic, gaining the highest engagement score of 37,635 for its eight posts on Facebook. 

Catholic pages also had high scores despite minimal posts on Facebook. 

These include Facebook pages of 100% Katolikong Pinoy (3rd), Father Rocky (4th), and Hugot Seminarista (7th).

Posts on Catholic news from the Vatican, free movies as announced in the page of Doc Willie Ong, bank holiday announcements, and subsidy for families during the ECQ gathered the most likes at more than 70 percent from the scanned posts on Holy week. 

The announcement on suspension of classes during Holy week is the most "loved" post at 73 percent, followed by inspirational posts (62.7 percent), romance posts (57.5 percent), and online Catholic mass (52.2 percent).

Facebook users also expressed excitement with the alternative means of entertainment such as online exhibits and anime movies to be shown on television during the Holy week, as reflected in the high engagement of posts relating to these topics.

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