The Philippine National Police is checking the allegations of some members of the Iglesia ni Cristo of abductions and threats against ministers amid the power struggle inside the influential group.
Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, the PNP spokesperson, said the Anti Kidnapping Group and the Quezon City Police District were ordered to look into the veracity of the claims, made public in a YouTube video.
“We are giving this due attention, the AKG and the QCPD are verifying the situation,” Mayor said in a press briefing in Camp Crame.
Senior Supt. Roberto Fajardo, the AKG chief, said on Thursday that they have not yet received any reports of abductions of INC ministers or members of the Manalo family, which has led the powerful group for 100 years.
He added that the aggrieved party must first file a complaint before they could take action on the allegations of kidnapping.
In a YouTube video, a man claiming to be Angel Manalo, the brother of the church’s current executive minister, Eduardo Manalo and one of the sons of the late INC executive minister Eraño Manalo, claimed that their lives were in danger.
“Ka Angel” Manalo, appealed to their brothers in the church to help them.
A woman supposedly the widow of the late Manalo, Tenny Manalo, also made a similar appeal for help in an audio recording, claiming that some INC ministers were abducted and that her children’s lives were in danger.
Mayor assured that the PNP “will provide assistance to everybody who needs it, especially in this kind of situations and crimes.”
However, he pointed out that the aggrieved party must first report the matter to the police before the PNP can act on it.
Asked to comment on the alleged involvement of policemen in the abductions, the PNP spokesperson said: “These are all allegations that we have to verify. The bottomline is the PNP is ready to respond.”
He added: “We always study and evaluate in a particular situation, we do not move by haste. We always do the checking or validation of the situation for the protection of everyone.
Mayor said the QCPD has taken the lead in following up the situation and verifying the claims of abduction and threats against INC ministers.