How to get a bank account for a non SEC registered Church

I belong to a small Church in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

We have a few ministries that requires donation from other people (feeding, community service, etc). And there are already people who are willing to commit to pledge certain amounts. However, we would be needing bank account under our Church's name since some of them will be sending it through check, and other's will be coming abroad. And we also would like them to have a sense of "trust" since the pledges/donations will be sent directly to the Church and not a person.

Now the question is, do we really need to register our Church to SEC in order for us to get a bank account (we need to open it in big banks like PNB or BPI, etc. and not on rural bannks). Or there is a way for us to do this without registering to SEC.

Reasons why we are hoping of not registering to SEC (at least for the meantime) is there is no rules yet on our Main/Mother church regarding local churches registering in SEC (they still can't give us answer, and some leaders view this as rebellion or split).

Thanks..

when you say church, is this the roman catholic church?

if not, you will have to register it with SEC as a religious organization.

note that if you do not have a tax exemption, these donations will be taxable.

Did you ever try to open an account with these banks and they required that your church must first be registered with the SEC?

@attyLLL: not a Roman Catholic Church

@wolverine: yup, we've tried this on my previous church (in Pandi Bulacan), we tried opening an account under our Church but they said we have to register (PNB).

I am looking for other options aside from SEC registration.

Don't you really have a trusted church member with an account where these donations will be deposited or sent in the meantime? I am afraid that that is your immediate remedy for now.