EXPELLED Iglesia ni Cristo minister Lowell Menorca II left the country on Saturday ahead of his testimony on Monday before the Court of Appeals in connection with the writ of amparo petition filed by his brother and a sister-in-law.
Menorca’s lawyer, Trixie Angeles, said Menorca had received death threats.
The Bureau of Immigration confirmed Menorca took a flight bound for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam at 10:45 p.m. It said it allowed Menorca to leave since he was not the subject of a hold order.
The appellate court’s Seventh Division summoned Menorca to appear for a cross-examination on his petition for a writ of amparo filed against the INC leadership, but it was only Angeles who was able to attend the continuation of Menorca’s supposed cross-examination.
Angeles claimed her client was missing, and that the last time that she and Menorca had talked to one another was last Sunday at 8 p.m. when the latter called her up and informed her that he, and his wife Jinky and daughter Yurie Keiko were prevented from going out of the country.
She told the court that Menorca could not be reached.
Later, Angeles validated Menorca’s exit.
She claimed the Menorcas were allegedly sent a March 7 photograph of his daughter whose face was marked with an “X.” The photo was placed on his vehicle’s windshield.
“It scared him so much that he proceeded to the airport so that he could secure his family,” Angeles said.
As far as the INC is concerned, Menorca is a fugitive from justice.
At a news conference, INC spokesman Edwil Zabala said Menorca was just trying to evade the cross-examination.
“Fearing that more of his lies and sins would be exposed had he faced the last stage of the scheduled cross-examination this morning, he chose to abscond. Beset by several libel suits, and an adultery charge to boot, he took the cowardly option. He took a hurried flight last night bound for Vietnam. He is now a fugitive from justice,” he said.
“He saw his case crumbling, just as the two other similar complaints filed the other expelled ministers, hence the decision to leave the country.”
According to Zabala, a Filipino couple spotted the Menorcas in Vietnam, and that they communicated with the INC officials to inform them about Menorca’s presence in Vietnam.
“Coming to the court with dirty hands charging innocent people with offenses they did not commit then leaving like a thief in the night, Menorca had trifled with our judicial processes and showed no respect for our institutions of Justice. The respondents leave it to the court to impose the sanctions he deserves under the rules,” he said.
Menorca is facing libel cases over accusations that the Society of Communicators and Networks International was a “hit squad” of the INC.
Charges of adultery and estafa were also filed against him.
On Jan. 20, the Manila Police District arrested Menorca while on his way to the appellate court to testify on petitions for writs of habeas corpus and amparo filed by his relatives in October 2015.