Many wanted to exploit Iglesia ni Cristo rally – Mar

MANILA, Philippines - Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II yesterday said there were many who wanted to exploit the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) protest for their personal ends, which was why it was important for everybody to stay calm to avoid trouble.

Roxas issued the statement as INC members ended their four-day assembly in Mandaluyong City, leaving the area filled with the stench of urine and piles of garbage.

Roxas said the Philippine National Police, local government units and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) were exerting every effort to bring back normalcy in the lives of people in the metropolis.

Without giving details, Roxas said there were discussions between government officials and the INC leadership to resolve the issue.

Roxas thanked those who helped maintain peace and order during the rallies.

Some observers, however, claimed the leadership of the National Capital Regional Police Office and the Eastern Police District failed to control the crowd in Mandaluyong City since NCRPO director Chief Supt. Joel Pagdilao and EPD director Senior Supt. Elmer Jamias have links with the religious group.

Unlikely ally

Amid the issue on the INC protest, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima found an unlikely ally in the person of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

“Of course I sympathize with her. Although in the past, we had an exchange of words, those were days of work. She has a duty, I have mine,” said Duterte, who has a long-standing word war with the justice chief over the alleged vigilante killings in Davao City.

De Lima has been accusing Duterte of being the one responsible for the series of unexplained killings in his city for the past years.

Duterte said the issue between De Lima and the INC was basically caused by the priority attention the justice secretary gave to the charges of illegal detention and harassment against the leaders of the religious group as filed by one of its former ministers. 

The mayor said it would have been best if the case was filed before the prosecutor’s office and not the Department of Justice itself as it would mean priority and special attention will be given to the case. 

“If you give it too much importance, it would appear that you want attention. I am not saying that De Lima is asking for it. You give it to the fiscal. After all, the fiscal has the original jurisdiction over the issue,” Duterte said. 

‘Resign now’

 Meanwhile, the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay said De Lima should resign now if she is really serious in running for senator in the 2016 presidential elections.

“If Secretary De Lima has urgent personal matters to attend to like going from point J (justice department) to point S (Senate), she should resign and let someone who will truly seek justice for the millions of Filipinos who have been robbed of their money and for the 44 slain Special Action Force (SAF) men take over,” Rico Quicho, Binay’s spokesman for political affairs, said in a statement.

Quicho also hit De Lima for considering the INC controversy a more urgent issue than the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam and the killing of the 44 SAF members in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25.

“What could be more urgent than filing the cases to get back the funds allegedly stolen and put the perpetrators in jail? What could be more urgent than hauling to jail those involved the killing of the SAF 44?” he said.

Quicho said more cases should also be filed against those involved in the alleged P900-million Malampaya Fund scam.

He said the billions of pesos lost to corruption could have been used for development projects to prop up the economy.

De Lima earned the ire of the INC members after she entertained the complaints of expelled minister Isaias Samson Jr. and ordered the investigation on his alleged abduction and also the abduction case of other ministers who were expelled from the church for allegedly spreading disinformation about corruption in the religious sect.

The INC is currently embroiled in a leadership crisis after the mother and siblings of INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo accused the 12-man church council of corruption involving billions of pesos in church funds. – With Edith Regalado, Helen Flores