Philippine Daily Inquirer / August 31, 2015
 |
| Photo source: PDI |
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.
The separation doctrine the officials of the Iglesia ni Cristo are invoking do not grant them, or indeed any leader or member of any church, an exemption from that fundamental principle: No one is above the law.
Last week, the family of a former highly placed minister of the Iglesia ni Cristo filed a case for serious illegal detention against eight members of the church’s governing council. Isaias Samson Jr., the former chief editor of the official Iglesia publication, and his wife and son sued the officials—allegedly for detaining them for nine days in July in their own home, holding them incommunicado, confiscating their passports and subjecting them to repeated interrogation. (In the blog of the whistle-blower using the pseudonym Antonio Ramirez Ebangelista, the eight are identified as Glicerio Santos Jr., Radel Cortez, Bienvenido Santiago Sr., Mathusalem Pareja, Rolando Esguerra, EraƱo Codera, Rodelio Cabrerra and Maximo Bularan.) The nightmare happened because Samson was suspected of being the whistle-blower Ebangelista, and it ended only when the family escaped.
