INQUIRER: INC ‘thinking’ members to defy group’s practice of bloc voting

"INC was founded in Manila in 1914, or 101 years ago by Felix Manalo. It is said to have 2 million members worldwide. The present executive minister, Eduardo Manalo, is Felix’s grandson."

Source: Inquirer.net

SAYING they are “willing to break from tradition,” members of Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) who call themselves the INC Thinking Voters have decided to defy the long-held bloc voting practice inside their church and vote in the 2016 national elections for the candidate who they feel “will stand for what is right.”

No longer observing “blind obedience to corrupt INC officials,” the INC Thinking Voters vowed to “speak loudly and clearly” during the elections.

They also exposed the INC’s hand in the government bureaucracy while accusing previous presidents and administrations of “creating a monster.”

In a strongly worded letter to all presidential candidates dated Dec. 11, the INC Thinking Voters said it represented the majority of INC members “who are rebelling inside because we could no longer close our eyes to what is happening in our church.”

INC is known for voting as a bloc that politicians eagerly woo during elections. But the INC Thinking Voters will no longer be silent and passive, the letter said. In other countries, such as the United States, INC members are not compelled to vote as a bloc, according to the group.

The group said it was looking for “a strong-willed President” whose platform would prioritize the eradication, among others, of three evils: bribery and corruption in government, endorsements by special interest groups of political appointees and the “padrino” culture.

‘Root of all evil’

Over the years, the INC Thinking Voters said, its church “has been allowed to grow in size and influence, but as proven by recent events, it now wields more power than the State. At the root of all EVIL is the precious BLOC VOTES (emphasis supplied). The monster is not INC per se but the people who now run our church. The INC doctrines remain pure; it is how they are used and abused by the current INC leadership that has destroyed what was once pristine.”

INC was founded in Manila in 1914, or 101 years ago by Felix Manalo. It is said to have 2 million members worldwide. The present executive minister, Eduardo Manalo, is Felix’s grandson.

Recently, INC was mired in controversy when Eduardo’s mother (wife of the late Eraño Manalo, who had served as INC’s second executive minister after Felix), brother and sister, along with several ministers, were expelled from INC for allegedly airing grievances and issuing pleas for help because of alleged danger to their lives.

Ex-INC™ Minister Lowell Menorca II bares it all against the notorious Sanggunian of the Iglesia Ni Cristo®

Source: Inquirer.net

The expelled minister of Iglesia ni Cristo who recently surfaced said that members of the Sanggunian, the highest administrative council of the powerful church, wanted him killed.

Facing the media on Sunday, Lowell Menorca II recounted the attempt on his life which took place in Dasmarinas City in Cavite province on July 17.

Menorca said that he was made to sit in an empty car when suddenly, a “round thing,” which was later identified as a hand grenade, was thrown inside the vehicle.

“After alighting the coaster, they made me sit in a car. They locked the door and immediately they left the scene. The driver of another car went to the backside and threw a round thing inside the car, at the backseat. I knew that it was a grenade,” Menorca said.

When the grenade did not go off, another alleged police officer was sent to kill him.

“When we were already in an isolated area, he was looking for a gun. That’s when I begged him. Sabi ko, ‘Please don’t kill me. Maawa ka na sa akin, sir. Ang katunayan po ay ministro ako ng Iglesia ni Cristo at may asawa po ako at isang anak.’ I was already crying to him. Sabi ko, ‘I am not a bad person. Huwag niyo naman po sanang hayaan na lumaki ang anak ko na walang ama,’” he said.

Menorca was able to persuade the officer not to kill him but it came with a price: he has to face a criminal charge of illegal possession of firearms.

“What was left for me to negotiate? So I said yes,” he said.

Menorca was arrested in Dasmariñas City on July 17 after allegedly threatening two construction workers with a hand grenade. He was freed on July 25 through INC lawyer Allen Blair Boy where he was subsequently brought to the INC compound in Quezon City.

Hours before the attempt on his life, Menorca and his wife were whisked away from their residence in Bulan, Sorsogon in a six-vehicle convoy after a church service on July 17. Officers from the Quezon City police were allegedly present during their abduction.

During the 17-hour travel from Sorsogon to Dasmarinas, the former minister said that he was repeatedly interrogated about a certain Antonio Ebangelista, a pseudonym of a blogger who revealed the alleged corruption inside the church’s ranks. Aside from the emotional turmoil he endured, Menorca sustained wounds from the handcuffs which cut his wrists.

“I asked them repeatedly to loosen the handcuffs because it hurt so much, my shoulders were about to fall off, my hands were bleeding. I kept on begging the police officers to even just remove my handcuffs, I’m not gonna fight them, they were all with guns.”

Lowell Menorca II (L) and wife Jinky Otsuka. INQUIRER.net

“I was begging and begging them for the life of my wife and my child. I just asked them, ‘Do whatever you want to me, just leave them alone.’ I asked them and begged them, whatever they want me to say, whatever they want me to admit, whether true or not, I will (admit it). They can shoot me if they want, they can kill me if they want, just leave my wife and my daughter alone. I asked where they were, they couldn’t give me anything, only trying to pacify me with the words saying ‘Okay lang sila,’” a sobbing Menorca said.

The officers even ridiculed him, joking that the convoy carrying his wife and daughter were intercepted by rebels.

Menorca claimed that he was detained by the members of the Sanggunian because he was being suspected to be one of the ministers who are critical of the church leadership.

“For three months we were there, for three months we were incarcerated. We were never free to go out even though they promised us, ‘Okay we can slowly introduce you to the outside world, slowly everything will be normal.’ I told them, ‘I don’t want my child growing up knowing that we are prisoners here’,” he said.

On October 21, Menorca and his family were “rescued” from an undisclosed house in Quezon City. In a video which was sent to INQUIRER.net on October 25, Menorca confirmed that they were kidnapped by the INC, saying that his statements in previous interviews were fed to him by the church leadership.

Menorca said that the order of the Supreme Court (SC) forcing INC to produce Menorca and his loved ones in court expedited his release.

The SC granted the petition of writs of amparo and habeas corpus filed by Menorca’s brother Anthony and Jungko Otsuka, the twin sister of the former minister’s wife, Jinky, on October 25.

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The Iglesia Ni Cristo® was "founded by clan patriarch Felix Manalo in 1914" says Inquirer

Council of Nicea (Source: Shoebat)

Believe in the Bible? Whose Bible? Which version? What Translation? Not all Bibles are the same. Protestant Bibles are all incomplete and wrong while the origin of it, the Catholic Versions are the genuine one. And for most of the times, the INC™ of Felix Manalo carefully uses different Protestant Bible Versions to accommodate and justify their man-made doctrines.

And while the original Bible is always TRUE, those who corruptly translated it, and deceitfully interpreted it make it utterly BAD, really BAD, just like how Eduardo V. Manalo and his paid Ministers translated it as they pleased.

Believe the Bible, not detractors, Iglesia leader exhorts members

BOCAUE, Bulacan [Inquirer.net] —Iglesia ni Cristo executive minister Eduardo Manalo has urged church members not to believe allegations against the INC, saying that it is the Bible, not other people, that speaks the truth.

Addressing INC members in an evangelical mission at the church-owned Ciudad de Victoria complex on Saturday, Manalo said accusations putting the 101-year-old church in a bad light should be spurned by its followers.

“If what they say is true, you should not be seeing what is happening now. That is proof that this church has a God, (that) God is with us in this activity,” Manalo said.

Controversy has hounded the INC after some of its officials exposed alleged corruption in the church. The exposé linking some members of the church’s powerful governing council came after Manalo’s mother, Cristina “Tenny” Manalo, and brother, Felix Nathaniel “Angel” Manalo, were expelled.

The church was founded by clan patriarch Felix Manalo in 1914.

Expelled minister Isaias Samson Jr., an expelled minister and former editor of the INC publication Pasugo, sued eight church leaders after he and his family were allegedly held under house arrest. Samson said the INC leaders suspected him of publishing a blog criticizing the church.

Manalo, in his address that was broadcast to other INC venues, said: “If there’s a truth that you should believe in, it is what the Bible says, and not what people say.”

“The INC is the church which has hope … this church will inherit the Kingdom of Christ on the day of judgment because our church has a connection with God,” Manalo said.

“God has been fulfilling His promise to His messenger (‘sugo’) from the start… the Iglesia ni Cristo will be saved, God said it Himself. It came from the Bible, not from me,” Manalo said.

The venues—the 55,000-seat Philippine Arena and the 25,000-seat Philippine Sports Stadium—were filled before the event started at 7 p.m.

Read more: Iquirer.net

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Inquirer Editorial: IGLESIA NONSENSE

INC™ SANGGUNIAN, believed to be behind all these mess (and where is Ka Eduardo V. Manalo? Why he remains silent amidst the chaos? For that it will make you think...

Iglesia Ni Cristo®'s SANGGUNIAN Members are Glicerio Santos Jr., Radel Cortez, Bienvenido Santiago Sr., Mathusalem Pareja, Rolando Esguerra, Eraño Codera, Rodelio Cabrerra and Maximo Bularan.

EDITORIAL
Inquirer.net

Iglesia nonsense

THE OFFICIAL reasons given by Iglesia ni Cristo officials and spokespersons for the protest actions that began on Thursday—first at the Department of Justice in Manila, then at the Edsa Shrine in Quezon City, and then since Saturday at the intersection of Edsa and Shaw in Mandaluyong—do not make sense. They do not stand logical or legal scrutiny. Instead, they betray the surge of panic that has overtaken some of the leaders of the influential church.

To begin, not at the beginning, but at the end: The protest organizers misunderstand the longstanding doctrine of the separation of church and state, which is the main reason they have offered to justify their collective mass action. That doctrine does not mean that offenses committed internally—that is, inside the church or within the congregation—cannot be investigated by the state; if a crime is involved, or alleged, then by definition that kind of violation is an offense against “the people,” and the state is duty-bound to investigate the matter. If evidence exists of the crime, the state must prosecute the guilty to the fullest extent, to meet the ends of justice.