Update
MEMBERS of the Iglesia Ni Cristo blocked Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s vehicle from going out of the Department of Justice (DOJ) compound on Thursday as they vowed to intensify pressure on her by holding a three-day protest vigil.
INC members shouted “bigyan ng katarungan ang SAF 44” and called for a respect of the separation of church and State, saying “we are one religion.”
De Lima’s vehicle moved back inside DOJ while INC members shouted “bias.”
Senior Superintendent Marcelino Pedroso, Public Safety Battalion chief, talked to the protesters and they eventually allowed de Lima’s vehicle to pass.
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However, sources said the Justice Secretary managed to flee the DOJ building by passing through the connecting door between the DOJ and the Supreme Court where she was escorted by members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Pedrozo estimated that more than 500 to 1,000 INC members gathered outside the DOJ.
The stretch of Padre Faura was closed to traffic.
A DOJ official who refused to be identified questioned why the police were allowing the INC members to block the gate of a national agency.
Pedrozo said the protesters have been issued a permit by Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.
But the DOJ official said “kahit isang sako pang permit ang na-issue sa kanila, hindi nila dapat hinaharangan ang gate ng isang national government agency.”
Days before the protest, the INC has questioned de Lima’s motive 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.
Samson accused Sanggunian ministers of ordering him and his family’s detention in their own house in Quezon City amid the power struggle that gripped the INC in July.
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. Tetch Torres-Tupas with a background report from Erika Sauler/AC
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