Dismissed Iglesia ni Cristo minister Lowell Menorca II was arrested in Manila Wednesday morning following a brief chase with police officers serving a warrant for his arrest for a libel case filed against him in Marawi City.
Menorca was about to attend a hearing at the Court of Appeals in connection with his petition for writs of amparo and habeas corpus when plainclothesmen attempted to arrest him and his companions in their car.
The expelled INC minister resisted arrest, resulting in a brief scuffle and a traffic jam along Roxas Boulevard.
Menorca said his life was in danger and admitted that he resisted arrest because the lawmen were not wearing police uniforms and refused to show identification.
He said the arrest warrant also did not indicate his name but an alias.
“They cannot convince me that the Iglesia has nothing to do with this. They can do this to all members, all ministers and all who are still going to join the church. They are above the law,” Menorca said.
Menorca finally surrendered to Manila Police District Director Rolando Nana.
MPD Station 10 commander Ed Leonardo said the arresting team tried to serve a warrant of arrest on Menorca at the corner of Nakpil Street and Taft Avenue in Manila but the latter resisted.
At least 20 uniformed policemen later showed up to help arrest Menorca.
Menorca surrendered at the corner of Quirino Avenue and Roxas Boulevard after asking the police officers to bring Nana, insisting that the MPD chief should lead his arrest because Leonardo, as an INC member, was biased.
Leonardo admitted being a member of the religious group, but denied that this had anything to do with Menorca’s arrest.
‘’We have a copy of the warrant coming from Marawi City. The case is libel and it is bailable,” he said.
Menorca’s lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles questioned the timing of the arrest, saying her client was supposed to take the witness stand for his petition before the court.
She said they did not receive any notice from the court about the supposed libel charge.
“As of now, there is nothing yet, even a complaint-affidavit. All we know is [there is] a warrant of arrest,” said Angeles.
She said the police should release Menorca and allow him to attend the hearing and to be cross-examined on his testimony against INC officials.
As of Wednesday evening, Menorca is still detained at the MPD Police Station 5 in Ermita.
Menorca recently claimed that he was threatened, coerced and tortured while he and his family were being held at the INC compound in Barangay Central in Quezon City.
Isaias Samson Jr., another former INC minister, filed with the Department of Justice a complaint for illegal detention against the religious group’s governing council.
The controversy began last year after a video was uploaded on the sharing site YouTube showing Angel Manalo, brother of executive minister Eduardo Manalo, and their mother Tenny Manalo, seeking help because some INC members had been detained by church leaders.
Meanwhile, the INC on Wednesday denied any involvement in the arrest of Menorca in Manila for a libel suit filed in Mindanao.
INC spokesperson Edwil Zabala made the statement at a news conference in Quezon City.
“Our lawyers were there, too, [at the Court of Appeals] waiting for our hearing to proceed,” he told reporters.
He dismissed Menorca’s claim that the INC leadership did not want his cross-examination to push through.
“As I have always said in the past, if there is an allegation, prove it. The truth will come out eventually. The public is now intelligent. Our accuser has overwhelming accusations, but is zero in evidence,” he said.
But he said the INC leadership will not take any legal steps to answer accusations of their involvement in Menorca’s arrest.
“The Iglesia ni Cristo is conducting its own inquiry concerning the events which led to the serving of an arrest warrant against Mr. Menorca,” he said.
The INC expelled Menorca for claiming that he had been abducted by the church.