MANILA, Philippines - Leaders of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) are set to present nine witnesses to refute the charges of kidnapping and detention filed by expelled minister Lowell Menorca II and his family.
Patricia Ann Prodigalidad, lawyer for the INC, said they would present the witnesses before the Court of Appeals (CA) tomorrow during the continuation of the hearing on the petition for habeas corpus and amparo filed by Menorca’s brother Anthony and sister-in-law Jungko Otsuka.
Among the witnesses are two security guards who will prove that Menorca and his family were not held against their will inside the INC compound in Quezon City, Prodigalidad said.
During the first hearing on Nov. 3, the CA’s Seventh Division ordered the parties to submit affidavits of their witnesses.
INC lawyers had earlier asked the appellate court to junk the petition for being moot and academic since Menorca and his family were no longer detained as they had claimed.
The CA division composed of Associate Justices Magdangal de Leon, Victoria Isabel Paredes and Elihu Ybañez decided to proceed with the hearing and said they would address the grounds raised by the INC camp in a resolution.
The respondents – INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo and council members Radel Cortez, Bienvenido Santiago and Rolando Esguerra – did not appear in the first hearing. Manalo was out of the country.
Menorca’s camp insisted that he was kidnapped on July 16 in Bulan, Sorsogon and that he and his family were held inside the INC compound in Quezon City until they were released on Oct. 23.
INC backed
Meanwhile, University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque Jr. called for respect of the right to freedom of religion as he assailed the “air of hostility” and “bigotry” against the INC.
He said non-INC members “should not degenerate into outright bias against what’s essentially a homegrown and worldwide Filipino church” because of the cases against INC leaders.
“We fear, or at least we are apprehensive about, what we do not understand. The INC may have its own way of exercising its religious beliefs and organizing its flock. We just need to accord it the needed tolerance and understanding as with any other religious groups in the country,” Roque said.
“In this day and age, religious bias and bigotry have no place in a civilized society,” he added.