CA's 7th Division to hear Menorca case vs Iglesia leaders

TV5 screenshot of ex-INC minister Lowell Menorca. The Court of Appeals 7th Division was assigned, after Monday's raffle, to hear the petition for habeas corpus and writ of amparo filed by Menorca's relatives.

MANILA - The Court of Appeals Seventh Division will handle the petition for habeas corpus and writ of amparo filed by relatives of Iglesia Ni Cristo ex-minister Lowell Menorca II against INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo and three other sect leaders, following a raffle Monday. The Seventh Division - composed of Associate Justices Magdangal De Leon, Victoria Isabel Paredes and Elihu Ybanez - will hear the case on November 3. Besides hearing the case next week, the CA will also receive the answers of Manalo and the other respondents in the petitions, all top INC leaders - Radel Cortez, Bienvenido Santiago and Rolando Esguerra. Last week the SC directed the INC officials to appear and surface the persons of Lowell Menorca, Jinky Otsuka-Menorca, Yurie Keiko Otsuka and Abegail Yanson before the CA. Claiming that Lowell and his family were being held against their will by members of the Sanggunian at the INC Central Compound in Quezon City, Menorca’s brother Anthony and sister-in-law Jungko Otsuka earlier filed the petitions asking the SC to issue a writ of amparo and habeas corpus. The Sanggunian is the INC's top administrative body. Menorca was supposedly abducted because he was critical of alleged corruption within the INC hierarchy. Menorca said he was abducted in Bulan, Sorsogon after performing a church service last July, and brought all the way to Dasmarinas, Cavite where he was detained on what he called a fabricated case of illegal possession of explosive charges. This was later withdrawn. Menorca told reporters in a press conference on Sunday that he was grilled nonstop for 17 hours at the INC compound in Quezon City, as he was being linked tp blogger "Antonio Ebanghelista," the most vocal critic of sect leaders.