MANILA, Philippines - Days after posting bail for two libel charges with courts in Mindanao, expelled Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) minister Lowell Menorca II was charged with adultery yesterday along with a married woman believed to be having an affair with him.
Davis Flores filed charges against his estranged wife, Aedtnavye Junilla Lazo, and Menorca with the Manila city prosecutor’s office.
His complaint stemmed from viral photos of Menorca and Lazo together and from a blog post allegedly maintained by Menorca.
Flores alleged that the blog post from downerofajsheart.blogpot.com narrated how “Eric,” reportedly one of Menorca’s aliases, and Lazo, identified as “AJ” and “Detdet” as well as her first name, “consummated their adulterous affair” at a hotel on Roxas Boulevard in March 2008.
The complainant said he found the post when he searched for Lazo’s name on the Internet late last year.
He said he confronted Lazo on her birthday in September 2015 until she admitted that she had an affair with Menorca.
Lazo left their home afterwards and may have transferred to an apartment Flores suspects may be owned by Menorca.
Suspicions
Flores said he had been suspicious of the closeness of Lazo and Menorca in early 2008. He said he and Menorca were friends then.
He cited one incident, when Lazo had an accident in mid-2008 and Menorca brought her to a hospital in a sports car. Flores said he asked a tricycle driver who witnessed the accident, but the driver mistook him for the one driving the sports car.
Flores said he found a message on Lazo’s mobile phone when she returned home after a quarrel. He said he confronted her upon seeing the message, “Nakauwi ka na be (Are you home, babe)?”
Flores and Lazo’s marriage lasted only five months, from 2007 to 2008. It ended when Lazo was expelled from the INC.
He said he had been waiting for concrete evidence to support the charges.
“I think this is the best time to show the world I am the affected party,” he said.
Flores insisted that the INC administration had nothing to do with his case. “I was the one hurt, I am the victim, so it is between me and him and (Lazo),” he said.
Menorca declined to comment on the case. “I have to talk with my lawyers first,” he said in a text message.
He is supposed to appear before the seventh division of the Court of Appeals on Monday in relation to his petitions for writ of habeas corpus and writ of amparo regarding his family’s alleged abduction from their home in Sorsogon and his detention at a police station in Dasmariñas, Cavite on a trumped-up charge last year.
He believes the INC’s central council is behind the scheme.
Menorca’s wife, Jinky, with whom he has a two-year-old daughter, declared that she would “stand by my man.”
She questioned the timing of the filing of the adultery charge since her husband is set to testify on Monday.
“Do your worst unimaginable dirty trick, use all your money, power and influence to kick us to the ground until there’s nothing left of us, but we will still rise up because we have God and the truth on our side,” Jinky said.