The Court of Appeals (CA) has sustained its previous ruling that paved the way for the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to compel Felix Nathaniel “Angel” Manalo II, estranged brother of Iglesia Ni Cristo’s executive minister Eduardo Manalo, to reveal the identities of his witnesses and submit summaries of their testimonies in connection with the illegal firearms and ammunition case filed against him and several others.
In a two-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Fortunato Caringal, the CA’s former 9th Division held that petitioners Nathaniel Manalo, his nephew Victor Eraño Manalo Hemedez, Jojo Indek Moreno, and Jonathan Ledesma failed to raise new arguments that would warrant the reversal of its February 23, 2023 decision.
“After a careful review of petitioners’ motion, we find that the instant motion deserves scant consideration. As observed by the Office of the Solicitor General in its comment, the arguments put forward by petitioners have been sufficiently addressed in our February 23, 2023 decision,” the CA resolution dated September 11, 2023 read.
“All told, in the absence of a novel argument raised by accused-appellant, we find no compelling reason to modify, much less reverse our February 23, 2023 decision,” the resolution said.
In its previous ruling, the appellate court found no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court in directing the petitioners to disclose the names of the three witnesses they intended to present.
The petitioners argued that the trial court should not have allowed the disclosure of the names of their witnesses as this would violate their right against self-incrimination.
The CA held that the right against self-incrimination should be invoked at a proper time, that is, when a question calling for an incriminating answer is propounded.
“It is only when a particular question is addressed to which may incriminate himself for some offense that he may refuse to answer on the strength of the constitutional guaranty. The argument of petitioners, therefore, on the supposed violation of their right against self-incrimination is misplaced, if not premature,” the CA ruled.
In September 2021, the CA’s 14th Division ruled as illegal the search and seizure conducted at the house of Eduardo siblings and declared that all the seized items during the raid “are inadmissible as evidence”
The CA ruling granted the motions to suppress evidence filed by Nathaniel Manalo II, his nephew Victor, and several others.
The decision reversed and set aside the orders dated March 1, 2019, June 28, 2019, December 27, 2019 and March 11, 2019 issued by the QC RTC which denied the motions of the petitioners to suppress evidence, seeking the exclusion of the evidence obtained from the alleged illegal search.