Ex-Iglesia minister Menorca accused of adultery

An adultery complaint was filed against former Iglesia ni Cristo minister Lowell Menorca with the Manila City Prosecutors Office on Friday.

The complainant, David Flores, said Menorca's ongoing rift with the Iglesia ni Cristo has nothing to do with his complaint.

Flores accused Menorca, a married man, of having an affair with his wife Aedtnavye Juntilla Lazo, with whom he is already estranged, from 2008 to 2015. He said the two have incriminating photos on Facebook.

He said he introduced his wife to Menorca in 2008, two months after they were married, "thus, respondent MENORCA is totally aware and knows fully well that respondent LAZO is married to me." 

Months later, Lazo allegedly brought home a stuffed toy and named it "Kal-el," supposedly one of Menorca's aliases.

“As the days and months went by, I noticed that expensive food was delivered to our house, which I did not order. It was the kind of food - such as baby back ribs, sub-sandwiches and salads - that was admittedly out of my financial capacity to pay for,” said Flores.

He said he later learned it was Menorca who had been sending food to their house.

Sports car

Flores said when his wife figured in an accident while riding a tricycle in 2008, Menorca himself allegedly fetched her at the scene of the accident on board a sports car.

Flores said the operator and driver of the tricycle even mistook him for Menorca, and tried asking financial assistance from him for the repair of the tricycle.

“The driver obviously mistook that the person driving the sports car and I were one of the same person. Until now, I have never owned a car but I knew then hat one person who owned a sports car was respondent Menorca,” he said.

Flores claimed Menorca also used to visit his wife at the badminton court where the couple played. Menorca and Lazo were allegedly texting each other, and at one point, the former INC minister allegedly bought her an expensive mobile phone.

Flores also claimed seeing Menorca visit his wife when the latter got confined at the New Era General Hospital in 2009.

Flores said a former neighbor told him that his wife had already been seeing someone else. He also said he found out about a blog run by Menorca where he "proudly documented his adulterous affair” with Lazo.

"With all the foregoing circumstances, I confronted respondent Lazo a few days before her birthday in September 2015,” Flores said.

"She tried to be evasive at first but later succumbed to the avalanche of the body of evidence which, when pieced together, conclusively proves a forbidden affair - an array of evidence that showed the obvious and where no quibbling can successfully stand,” he added.

Flores said his wife, who he said had admitted to her infidelity, also stopped sleeping in their bedroom.

Menorca, who has accused Iglesia ni Cristo leaders of abducting him and detaining him and his family, is currently out on bail in connection with the libel charges filed against him in Mindanao.

He has linked the charges to the influential religious group.

GMA News Online contacted Menorca's lawyer Trixie Angeles for comment, but she has yet to respond as of posting time. — with Mark Merueñas/KBK/RSJ, GMA News