Justice Secretary Leila de Lima INQUIRER PHOTO
Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) on Wednesday questioned the motive of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in what it deemed was “extraordinary attention” given to the illegal detention case filed by expelled minister Isaias Samson Jr. against the leaders of the church. Illegal detention is a nonbailable offense.
Samson, a minister for more than 40 years, used to be the Sanggunian member in charge of foreign mission and editor in chief of the INC official organ before he was expelled by the INC leadership.
Bienvenido Santiago, INC general evangelist, also said De Lima should show the same enthusiasm in resolving the Mamasapano case in which 44 members of the police Special Action Force were killed, including two INC members, in an operation in Maguindanao province.
“The complaint filed by Samson, we learned, is moving because of the guidance of Secretary Leila de Lima, who gave it extraordinary attention. What is the motive? She herself personally attended to the complaint,” Santiago said in a press briefing at the INC central office in Quezon City.
The INC official wondered why the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not give attention to the case of the 40 policemen who died in Mamasapano like what it did to those who filed a complaint in the DOJ on Tuesday.
“Compared with the 40 policemen who died in Mamasapano, not a single mosquito died in the complaint filed by Samson,” Santiago said.
The INC official said two church members—Nicky Nacino and Ephraim Mejia—were among the Fallen 44 but the church quietly waited for the DOJ to go after the personalities responsible for the bloody operation, including government officials who should be held accountable.
“We want Secretary De Lima and anyone who ordered her to know that Iglesia is requesting, in the name of those left behind by the two men who died in Mamasapano, who were our brothers in Iglesia, that they aggressively pursue the case of the Fallen 44,” Santiago said.
“In short, the justice department should be fair and without bias. [This is] the least we expect from the Department of Justice is justice,” he added.
Against Sanggunian
Samson and members of his family filed in the DOJ a complaint against six members of the religious sect’s Sanggunian, or the highest administrative council—for alleged illegal detention, harassment, threats and coercion following an internal squabble.
In a complaint, Samson, together with his wife Myrna and son Isaiah, accused Sanggunian members Glicerio Santos Jr., Radel Cortez, Bienvenido Santiago Sr., Mathusalem Pareja, Rolando Esguerra, Eraño Codera, Rodelio Cabrerra and Maximo Bularan of “undertaking a series of planned and concerted efforts to persecute my family and myself, to the great prejudice of our constitutional and statutory rights.”
Illegal detention
“[I] accuse all named respondents (members of the INC Sanggunian), with direct personal participation, while cooperating and collaborating with each other, in the harassment, illegal detention, threats and coercion upon my family and me,” Samson said in his complaint.
“I likewise accuse and hold responsible all the other persons named in this complaint affidavit to be voluntarily complicit in the execution of the illegal acts of the Sanggunian members,” he said, adding that he was also demanding indemnification of all damages from all respondents and compensation of all expenses his family had to shoulder as a result of their ordeal.
Suspicious transactions
During the course of his membership, Samson said he obtained “personal knowledge” of several suspicious transactions entered into by fellow minister and “de facto” Sanggunian leader Santos.
“As a result of this knowledge, I began questioning these transactions and policies set by the Sanggunian, which I felt were against the avowed principles of our faith; not to mention that these activities amounted to serious mishandling of the finances of INC,” Samson said in his complaint.
He recounted an incident about the INC Lingap Pamamahayag program, which collects cash and goods from INC members and for distribution to the poor, particularly victims of calamities.
During the Lingap activity for victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan), the donations fell short of the target amount so that Lingap organizers requested P1.7 million from the INC leadership to buy additional rice and to hire transportation for the distribution of the aid.
Samson said he was surprised to learn that Santos, who reported the problem to the INC executive minister, asked for and was given a “terribly jacked-up” amount of P9 million.
Siphoning off church funds
Samson said he later learned of other similar incidents involving “direct deception and siphoning” off of church funds.
“In all of these shameless schemes, the name of respondent Santos would always come up, along with the names of the other current members of the Sanggunian. In a sense, it seemed to me that the current Sanggunian membership has been implementing a pervasive policy of deception, fraud and corruption to serve their own individual greed,” he said.
Samson said talks of the controversies spread among local and overseas INC members, “leaving most people in confusion and anxiety about the status of the political system within INC.”
Blog
“Soon enough, the hushed talks reached critical mass and could not be contained anymore. The controversy went public,” Samson recounted, referring to the blog, “Iglesia ni Cristo Silent No More,” that appeared in April 2015 that exposed allegedly anomalous transactions involving INC funds entered into by the Sanggunian.
“In each and every one of the reported scandalous transactions, there is always an involvement of a disbursement of so much amount of INC funds, most of which could not be justified by the results of the respective endeavor involved. And in all of these financial transactions, a great many of the members of INC truly believe that most of the money disbursed went directly into the pockets of the members of the current Sanggunian,” he added.
Expulsion
The blog, according to Samson, also revealed several events, which occurred within INC, that eventually led to the expulsion of the widow of the late executive minister, Eraño Manalo, and their son; to the expulsion of several ministers and their families, and to the alleged harassment, abduction and illegal detention of several other ministers and their families that the DOJ is investigating.
Samson said the blog was “replete with credible stories and accounts” but being a minister, he decided to defer the resolution of the entire matter to INC officials. Thus, whenever he was asked, he would consistently deny knowledge of any of it.
Passports, computers taken
On July 15, an INC official came to him and collected his passport as part of an investigation of ministers said to be overstaying during their foreign missions. He said he turned over his passports, as well as that of his wife and his son.
The following day, however, the six Sanggunian members came to his office and accused him of being the “Antonio Ebanghelista,” the author of the blog. The Sangguian members, he said, pressured him into admitting to being the blog author.
Inquisition
“[S]ince I really was and still am not the person they are accusing me to be, I simply but carefully evaded their ridiculous questions. After an hour of not getting any favorable answer from me, they shifted to a more stringent, threatening and ultimately wildly aggressive mode of interrogation. The whole affair felt very surreal to me; and the feeling of fear and anxiety made me think that I was experiencing what it would have been like to be the subject of Torquemada’s Inquisition,” he recounted.
Samson said the respondents confiscated his cell phone and office desktop computer. He said he learned later that one respondent also went to his house and took another computer there. His service vehicle and his son’s cell phone and laptop were also later confiscated while their local phone line was also disconnected.
‘House arrest’
Cortez, he said, told him, “You’re under house arrest. You can’t speak with anyone,” while the others “indicated agreement.”
Samson said he thought the Sanggunian was not serious about putting him under house arrest so he and his family tried attending the church service that day. Upon returning, however, Cortez allegedly confronted them and ordered them not to leave their own house again.
“It was then that it dawned on me: the Sanggunian is isolating me and my family from the rest of the INC membership by relegating us to the four corners of our home. In short, we were in an actual state of detention, never mind that we were being detained in our own home,” he said.
Hours of interrogation
The following day, Pareja and Cabrerra brought Samson to the Sanggunian office where the respondents interrogated him for several hours to make him admit that he was the blog author.
At the same time, members of Samson’s family who were supposed to go to the grocery to buy food and other necessities were forbidden by security guards from leaving their house.
Forced confession
The Sanggunian leaders, Samson said, forced him to write a statement confessing his supposed guilt and to identify the names of ministers, both local and abroad, whom they believed to be Ebanghelista’s sources of all the information used in his blog.
“Since I was not Ebanghelista, I really did not know what to write. I only hoped that writing something would calm them down long enough for me to plan what to do to extract ourselves from what seemed to me to be certain death. So I decided to do as they wanted. I wrote a statement in long hand, which contained statements and allegations so contradictory and ridiculous that anybody reading it would clearly realize it would serve no purpose but to foil the Sanggunian’s evil schemes,” he recounted.
Samson said he named certain ministers and members who actually did tell him about alleged corrupt practices in INC. He said he was not given a copy of the statement.
Wife’s pacemaker
In the next days, the restrictions on them remained in place. A cousin, who visited him and his family, was forbidden from entering their house and speaking to them. Samson said even his wife, who has been suffering from anxiety over what has been happening the past days and whose pacemaker needed recalibration was not allowed to leave. A doctor was summoned by the Sanggunian to check on her, while a niece’s offer to take his wife to her doctor was refused.
The wife of one of the Sanggunian members later came to the Samson house to ask what groceries they need; these were delivered by the head of the security of the INC central temple. However, armed guards continued to bar them from leaving and their home was kept under surveillance, he said.
Escape
On July 23, Samson and his family said he decided to escape by pretending to go to the INC service early in the morning. They boarded their private vehicle that was not confiscated but they were again stopped from exiting the compound gate by the armed guards.
Samson and his family waited for another opportunity to escape and as the guards became occupied with the vehicular traffic and with calling some people, his son took the opportunity to speed out of the compound.
Meeting with journalists
Samson later held his press conference in the afternoon, after which, he said, a certain police official and several men approached him to offer protection. He said, however, that he believed the group was out to get him; they only left after the media began asking them questions.
“[This] foiled attempt at recapturing us would not deter the Sanggunian from pursuing us wherever it may lead us, [so] my family and I decided to stay in hiding from that day until today… . As of the filing of this complaint, the only contact we have with the outside world is through our lawyers, whom we had engaged shortly after our escape,” he said.
Meant to keep INC unity
At the INC press conference, Santiago said Samson and other expelled members and ministers used to uphold the discipline enforced by INC.
“It’s but natural for Iglesia to impose discipline and the teachings of the organization that are based on the Bible,” Santiago said.
He said it was the right of the organization to defend itself against those who wanted to destroy it. “That was why investigations were conducted and there were those who were suspended and others had to be expelled,” he said.
Santiago said the expulsion of troublemakers and those who attempted to sow disunity was undertaken to keep the unity of INC. Erika Sauler and Jerome Aning
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