Appeals court hearings resume, tackle 'inconsistencies' from Menorca camp

Lawyers of Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) on Wednesday pointed out before the Court of Appeals some "inconsistencies" in the testimony of the wife of former INC minister Lowell Menorca. 

 

INC legal counsel also indicated that Menorca and his family were allowed to go out of the INC compound in Quezon City. 

 

During the resumption of CA Seventh Division proceedings on a petition for writs of habeas corpus and amparo of the Menorca camp, defense lawyers made Lowell's wife Jinky Otsuka-Menorca admit that she did not personally see her husband being taken away by armed men last July 16 in Bulan, Sorsogon.

 

Jinky said it was their househelp Abegail Yanson who told her about Lowell's alleged "abduction."

 

This was contrary to the claims made by Lowell's brother Anthony and Jinky's sister Jungko in their joint petition for writs amparo and habeas corpus.

 

In their petition, Anthony and Jungko claimed that Jinky "witnessed the taking of Lowell Menorca and would have been taken herself, had she not grabbed a knife and threatened to stab the officers of the church and the policewoman who came to 'arrest her.'"

 

Anthony and Jungko's petition also alleged that from Sorsogon, the Menorca family, including their househelp Abegail, were taken to the INC compound in Tandang Sora, along Commonwealth in Quezon City.

 

Jinky also told the appeals court that while she had been allowed to go out of the INC compound, she would always stay in the car with security escorts.

 

She also said that even when their relatives would come to visit them or when they went to the INC-run Philippine Arena in Bulacan, INC "guards" were always with them.

 

Asked if the guards were armed, Jinky said the men carried bags that contained guns.

 

Jinky also said she no longer sought the help of the family guests who would visit them at the INC compound because "we were scared of what could happen."

 

"[INC leaders] promised us always that we will be freed, that everything will be over soon. But this never happened," said Jinky.

 

INC lawyer Jose Martin Tensuan, meanwhile, asked Yanson if she had been allowed to leave the INC compound.

 

Yanson replied that she had been offered to go back to Sorsogon with her father and brother. But when she learned that she first had to be transferred to another place with her face covered, Yanson declined the offer.

 

In response, lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles, legal counsel for the Menorcas, said the supposed "inconsistencies" were natural.

 

"Testimony is not 100-percent foolproof. It's subject to certain things like memory, human factors, environmental factors, et cetera."

 

She added that "(i)t is far more suspicious to have an airtight testimony than to have one with the occasional errors." 

 

The CA has imposed a P2,000 fine on the Menorca camp after its counsels failed to submit to the court on time its witnesses' judicial affidavits.

 

INC lawyer Patricia-Ann Prodigalidad said the Menorca camp's failure to submit the affidavits on time was meant to "ambush" the defense.

 

""This a ploy to prolong this case or surprise the respondents. How many times will the Honorable Court be lenient with them?," she said.

 

The CA justices scheduled the next hearing for December 1, during which Lowell is expected to take the stand.  — ELR, GMA News