The Department of Justice has dismissed the criminal complaints filed against leaders of Iglesia Ni Cristo for lack of probable cause.
In two separate resolutions dated Nov. 13, 2015, the DoJ dismissed the complaints of former INC minister Isaias Samson and former member Jose Norlito Fruto against respondents lawyer Glicero Santos Jr., Radel Cortez, BienvenidoSantiago Sr., Mathusalem Pareja, Rolando Esguerra, Eraño Codera, Rodelio Cabrerra and Maximo Bularan Jr. The resolution was approved by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano upon the recommendations made by Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva, along with Asst. State Prosecutors Olivia Torevillas and Mark Roland Estepa.
In ruling against the complainants, the fiscals ruled that the respondents could not have been liable for grave coercion when they were accused of compelling Samson to admit that he was Ebanghelista and naming other ministers who gave information used in the blog.
“Complainant Isaias failed to offer proof that he was compelled to do something against his will when he was allegedly forced by respondent to execute a written statement admitting his culpability and complicity in the Ebanghelista blog. The record is bereft of any proof that indeed the subject statement exists,” the resolution stated.
The DoJ prosecutors noted that Samson “failed to offer an iota of evidence” on the matter of intimidation on confiscation of his passport, service vehicle, laptop, cellphone and other personal effects.
“There is nothing in the recitation of facts made by complainant which show that respondents resorted to threat, violence and intimidation when the said articles were taken allegedly upon orders of the Sanggunian,” they stressed.
“The element of force, threat and intimidation” was also “wanting” in relation to Samson’s complaint for the supposed forcible entry into his residence,” the DoJ prosecutors said.
They noted that Samson and his family members were not present at the time of the alleged forcible entry of their residence.
Charges of illegal detention and restraint on their liberty were found not to have been “coupled with threat, violence and intimidation,” with the DoJ repeatedly stressing that “there is no evidence” of physical harm or any form of intimidation against Samson or members of his family.
The investigating prosecutors also found Fruto’s complaint lacking of probable cause for illegal arrest, arbitrary detention and violation of abode.
Fruto’s charges of robbery were dismissed because he was not even in his house when the alleged robbery was committed.
On Fruto’s allegations that INC officials were bent on silencing and harassing him through the filing of a string of criminal charges, a number of which were already pending in court, the DoJ emphasized that these were “already subject of judicial proceedings,” and Fruto’s claims of harassment should be raised as a matter of defense in the proper courts when they are being heard.