CA junks ex-Iglesia minister’s petition for protection

THE COURT of Appeals (CA) has dismissed for being moot and academic the petitions for writs of habeas corpus and amparo filed by relatives of former Iglesia ni Cristo minister Lowell Menorca II, who claimed that the INC leadership ordered him abducted and tried to have him killed last year.

In a 13-page resolution, the appellate court’s Seventh Division granted the omnibus motion filed by the INC lawyers seeking the dismissal of the cases due to the nonappearance in the hearings of Menorca, who left the country on March 6  with his wife and daughter, citing death threats.

“[S]ince they (Menorcas) are supposedly the only true beneficiaries of the instant petition, proceeding with the case would merely waste the valuable time and resources of the court; a declaration on the issue would be of no practical value or use,” the court said in the decision written by Justice Victoria Isabel Paredes.

“The actual substantial relief which the petitioner would be entitled to, i.e., the preservation of the quality of the right to life, liberty and security afforded by the writ of amparo cannot be enforced beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court; hence the dismissal of the petition would negate the relieve, as its enforcement has been rendered nugatory with the flight of the Menorca family from his jurisdiction,” the court added.

Sought for her comment, Menorca’s lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles said she was still waiting for a copy of the decision.