MikeLigalig.com

By: June Nucum
@inquirerdotnet
INQUIRER.net U.S. Bureau
12:46 AM October 1st, 2015



U.S.-based members of Iglesia Ni Cristo hold protest vigil in front of the church’s U.S. headquarters in Burlingame, California. PHOTOS BY JUN NUCUM


BURLINGAME, California — Scores of Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) members in the United States staged a peaceful vigil in front of their church’s main U.S. office in Burlingame, California, Monday, September 27.

The vigil was held to protest alleged harassment by the current church leadership of followers and family members of the late former INC Executive Minister Eraño “Ka Erdy” Manalo. The late INC leader is the father of current church Executive Minister Eduardo Manalo.

Participants in the vigil carried placards, and some wore masks to hide their real identities as a camera videotaped their movements and statements to the media present.

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In a September 23, Facebook post lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles, counsel for Angel and Doti Manalo, wrote that two of the siblings were not being provided with anything, “not food, not toiletries, nor other necessary items for living they must rely on the kindness of friends and family.”

The Cruz-Angeles post claimed that a petition for Injunction for Temporary Restraining Order was filed by Radel Cortez, a member of the Sanggunian (the church’s council of elders) asking, among other things, that Ka Angel and Ka Loti no longer be allowed to receive visitors or have any items delivered to them as the boxes delivered to the siblings may contain guns.

The post further stated that the remaining Manalo family members in the compound were slowly being hidden from the world, with walls raised around them and surveillance cameras trained on them night and day.

Cayabyab added that with the rally, they also wanted to raise awareness of the “evil and wrongdoings” happening inside their church.

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Not a response to EDSA

The protesters were quick to clarify that the vigil was not their response to the big church demonstrations that jammed EDSA in Metro Manila recently, as they had no opinion on what happened there, they said.

“The INC media are getting our photographs, our videos, our voices, whatever they want to get in order to track who we are, the local congregations we are from. But the fact is when it comes to proclaiming the truth we are not scared. None of us are scared in proclaiming and showing everyone what they are doing to the members of the Church of Christ,” Cayabyab declared.

Speaking for the other side, Atty. Rommel San Pedro, minister of the gospel and lawyer for the INC U.S.A.’s main office, issued this statement:

“The Church of Christ is a Bible-based church. We spread all over the world based on our principles of love and caring for others. The people outside were former members of the church but have been expelled based on due process procedures of the Church of Christ. The Church of Christ respects the freedom of religion, also the freedom of speech and freedom of worship. Their activities have been patterned and timed to conflict with our own activities. We have reason to believe that a group or certain groups are working closely with others to try to interfere with our right to worship in peace. All we want in the Church of Christ is to worship our God Almighty is peace. We want our God Almighty be glorified. We want as many people as possible to be saved on the Day of Judgment.”

San Pedro also maintained that they were allowing the rally participants to speak in front of the church premises as part of freedom of speech, although he claimed that the protesters were libeling the Church of Christ by making inflammatory statements that have no basis in fact.

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no comment na lang ko.

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