But INC lawyer Cuevas says restrictions needed to ensure security in compound

MANILA – A petition for injunction filed by the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) abridges the personal freedom of Angel Manalo and Lottie Manalo-Hemedez, the Manalos’ lawyer Trixie Angeles said.

The INC filed a petition on September 23, asking the court to prohibit unknown individuals from entering the premises of the INC compound in 36 Tandang Sora Avenue Quezon City where INC Executive Minister Eduardo Manalo’s siblings are staying.

The petition was filed before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court after CCTV footage of people entering the compound was discovered.

INC legal counsel Atty. Serafin Cuevas Jr. said the INC deemed it necessary to petition for the restrictions to ensure the security of the occupants.

Cuevas also added that the INC may ask for the restrictions as the owner of the property.

In the hearing on the merits of the case on Tuesday, Cuevas asked for the names and pictures of all the occupants.

He also asked before the court to disallow visitors from staying in the compound overnight.

“It’s their [Angel and Lottie’s] right [to have visitors], you see. The only people who are not allowed visitors are people who are detained. This [petition] amounts to restriction of their personal freedom,” said Angeles.

Both parties agreed to meet halfway while the case is being heard.

Included in the temporary agreement is the submission of all the occupants’ names and pictures, as well as the list of all their visitors.

Meanwhile, guards will be posted in a public area outside the compound to ensure the security and to monitor the visitors.

The next hearing is set on Monday, October 5.

SOURCE: ABS-CBN News: INC petition violates personal freedom, lawyer says

MANILA – Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) has sought court intervention to prohibit ”strangers” from going in and out of the residence where the estranged relatives of executive minister Eduardo Manalo are staying.

Represented by lawyer Serafin Cuevas Jr., the INC filed a civil case before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81 seeking an injunction that will stop expelled INC members from going in and out of the Manalo residence at 36 Tandang Sora Avenue in Quezon City.

Named respondents in the case were Manalo’s siblings, Felix Nathaniel or Angel and Lolita Manalo-Hemedez or Lottie, as well as several expelled members of the church.

The respondents, through lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles, sought the inhibition of Judge Madonna Echiverri from the case during the hearing for the prayer for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and preliminary injunction.

Echiverri, who granted the motion, teaches at the INC-run New Era University. Cuevas is a dean of the university’s college of law.

With the inhibition of Echiverri, the hearing on the petition for the TRO was deferred until after the raffle of the case to another judge.

Cuevas told The STAR that they sought court intervention as the INC leadership does not want to put the law into its own hands.

He said they decided to file the case after security personnel noticed that strangers were going in and out of the Manalo residence, which is owned by the church.

”As the registered owner, the church has the authority to stop anyone from entering its property,” he said, adding that security officers have monitored boxes entering the compound.

Cuevas said the residents are free to enter the Manalo residence, saying the legal case was meant to ensure peace in the compound.

Cruz-Angeles, in a separate interview with The STAR, said they would oppose the INC petition.

She said the boxes seen by the security personnel being brought in the residence were provisions for the Manalo siblings and their families.

Cruz-Angeles said a request for a TRO is filed only when a right of a plaintiff, in this case the INC, is violated. She said her clients have not violated any right when they accepted visitors.

Earlier, the INC leadership expelled the Manalo siblings along with their mother Christina or Tenny for creating divisions within the church.

Prior to the expulsion, Angel appeared in a video and asked their members to help them.

He later spoke to media and clarified that they were not being detained in their residence. Angel has revealed supposed anomalies within the church, which the INC denied as baseless allegations.

Church officials filed libel cases against the expelled ministers for allegedly issuing statements that damaged the reputation of the religious group.

Expelled INC minister Isaias Samson Jr. has responded to the libel suit filed against him by the religious group.

In a four-page affidavit filed before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, Samson, former editor-in-chief, of INC’s publication Pasugo, said he did not utter malicious statement against the church.

Last month, thousands of INC members trooped to EDSA to protest the supposed special treatment given by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on the illegal detention case filed against some officials of the church.

SOURCE: ABS-CBN News: INC wants expelled members out of Manalo residence