AN expelled minister of the Iglesia ni Cristo expressed fears Tuesday of a whitewash of his illegal detention complaint filed against eight members of the Sanggunian, the highest policy-making body of the influential church.
“I’m the one involved here and I should’ve been included in the talks that they had,” said Isaias Samson in an interview on the ANC news channel.
In bringing the five-day protest to a halt, the INC said Monday they reached an agreement with the Aquino administration—a statement the Palace denied.
“We’d like to inform all our brethren that both the Iglesia and the government have talked already and clarified things between us. All is well,” said INC General Evangelist Bienvenido Santiago in a video message shown to members at Edsa Shaw on Monday.
Samson said that he won’t back down on his complaint against the church leaders.
“My purpose here is not only to file a case because they have done something against me. I fully believe that I’m just instrumental so that all wrong things that are done by the Sanggunian will be exposed,” said Samson.
In the same interview, Samson said the politically influential religious group is now divided, after the low turnout of members in their five-day protest.
“God has placed the Sanggunian in shame because they have tried to mass or gather millions of members and yet they have failed miserably,” Samson said.
“They had to resort to asking the members from far-flung provinces to come to Manila. To think that the Quezon City district alone is more than enough to mass more than what they gathered on the last night of the rally,” he added. “The members are not listening to them. They had to go to remote places and put them on vehicles.”
The Quezon City locale—also known as “Capitol”—is one of the 29 ecclesiastical districts of the church in Luzon alone.
Chief Senior Supt. Tyrone Masigon said the religious group amassed more than 20,000 members on the fifth day of the protests.
In the same interview, Samson alleged that the Sanggunian lied to members so they would join the protest.
“I know who they are, what they can do and will do just to protect themselves. In the past days, they have lied to the people, they used the name of EVM [Eduardo V. Manalo] in order to make members of the INC shield them,” said Samson.
“The Sanggunian has been misleading and using them by saying that it is Ka Eduardo V. Manalo who is being accused and therefore will be arrested. The Sanggunian knows very well that it is not true and yet that is what they spread to members of the church,” he added.
The respondents to Samson’s illegal detention case are Glicero Santos Jr., Radel Cortez, Bienvenido Santiago, Mathusalem Pareja, Rolando Esguerra, Erano Codera, Rodelio Cabrera and Maximo Bularan.
Manalo was not included in the charge sheet.
But on Tuesday, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II denied rumors that Manalo would soon be arrested.
“There have been rumors that INC Executive Minister Ka Eduardo Manalo will be arrested. It’s not true. We’ve explained to them that there’s nothing like that,” said Roxas in an interview over radio dzMM.
Roxas also denied that the government and the INC leadership struck an agreement.
He said during the meeting with church officials, the government merely explained that the INC was not being singled out, and that there was no special treatment for or against any group.
Samson’s lawyers on Monday called for transparency from the government with respect to its dealings with the INC.
Senator Francis Escudero, who is considering a run for higher office next year, said the INC protests would not have taken place if the Justice Department gave priority to cases that were filed before the Samson complaint.
He said if the department had simply followed the “first in, first out” rule in handling cases, the conflict could have been avoided. With Macon Ramos-Araneta