Kin of ‘detained’ Iglesia ex-minister seek SC help

THE RELATIVES of former Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) minister Lowell Menorca have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to compel the church leadership to surface him and his family members, saying they are “being held against their own will” by an organization that is acting like a “ravenous monster.”

In a petition filed on Wednesday, the siblings of Menorca and of his wife Jinky said the couple, their daughter Yurie, and house helper  were being detained in an apartment at the INC central compound in Quezon City.

The plea sought the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus and a writ of Amparo. It named INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo as the chief respondent, along with members of the Iglesia’s Sanggunian or governing council, including Radel Cortez, Bienvenido Santiago, Rolando Esguerra “and all persons acting for and in their behalf.”

It was the latest move in the INC leadership controversy that began on July 22, when Manalo’s brother Angel and their mother Tenny appeared on a YouTube video asking for help and claiming there was a threat to their lives. The INC later had them expelled from the church.

“It is manifest that Lowell, Jinky and Yurie Keiko Menorca, as well as their house help Abbegail Yanson, have clearly been subjected to the INC’s unjustified, unlawful and inhumane restriction of their liberty,” read the petition, which was filed in the SC by Jinky’s twin sister Jungko and Menorca’s younger brother Anthony.

Anthony was earlier placed under the witness protection program of the Department of Justice (DOJ) after he alleged that he was under similar threats.

The petitioners asked the court to direct the respondent INC officials “to produce and deliver the persons… over to the custody of the petitioners for the latter to bring them before this honorable court.”

Should the respondents refuse, the high court may “order the inspection of the detention area inside the INC central compound,” they added. The petition also sought to “enjoin respondents from doing further harm and even from approaching or transacting with the persons subject of this petition.”

The high court was also asked to order the respondents to “produce documents, including but limited to electronic surveillance reports by the ACTIV, the INC’s Internet technology department.”

Like another expelled INC minister, Isaias Samson Jr., whose family was also allegedly detained by the Sanggunian, Menorca was accused of posting online articles that were critical of the INC through a blog under the name Antonio Ebangelista.

“Lowell is clearly in grave and immediate danger of being liquidated or killed. This is not too far-fetched considering that they had earlier ordered Lowell’s abduction, transport and illegal detention,” the plea said.

Samson and Menorca now have the same lawyer, Trixie Cruz-Angeles. Samson, who has been in hiding with his family since his escape from “house arrest,” earlier filed illegal detention, harassment, threats and coercion charges in the DOJ against Sanggunian members.

Members of the Menorca family, later “joined” by Lowell’s mother Fredesminda at their place of detention, “are experiencing an ever-growing anxiety about the ever-tightening clasp the INC has upon them,” according to the petition. “They are now crying for freedom…  Their very own pastors have been treating them as if they were slaves and their church was a ravenous monster.”

The Menorcas’ ordeal began on July 16 when armed men in a convoy of vehicles took Lowell as he was on his way home in Bulan, Sorsogon province. Among the abductors was a man in police uniform with a “Quezon City Police District” patch, said the petition.

Lowell was later found jailed in Dasmariñas City, Cavite, where he was booked for allegedly threatening construction workers with a grenade.

Menorca’s wife, one of the witnesses to her husband’s abduction, tried to flee but was also followed. According to the petition, respondent Esguerra allegedly told her “in a very menacing manner that she would never see her husband again unless she appeared at the Iglesia Ni Cristo Central Office in Quezon City.”

That was how she, her daughter and house help ended up detained with her husband at the central compound, the petition said.

Menorca appeared later that month in an interview aired on INC-run TV station Net 25, where he denied being abducted.

But according to Anthony, Lowell’s brother, his elder sibling was clearly speaking under duress in that interview.

So far, only Jungko Otsuka had been allowed to visit the Menorcas at the central compound.

The Inquirer tried to reach INC spokesperson Edwil Zabala for comment but he was not responding to text messages and his phone remained unattended at press time. With a report from Tina Santos