It’s not the INC, it’s the law

The Philippines Daily Inquirer ran an editorial pointing out that it was the alleged long arm of the Iglesia Ni Cristo that was behind the arrest of an expelled member who has a pending libel case.

It’s not the Iglesia Ni Cristo, but it’s the long arm of the law.

It is the law that has been on the heels of Lowell “Boyet” Menorca II (LBM) because of his baseless and damaging accusations against the Society of Communicators and Networkers (SCAN).

LBM claimed that SCAN is the death squad of the INC. If it were, whom did its members kill? None! It’s just in Menorca’s swelling head.

SCAN has never been involved in illegal activities. “Saving lives is our priority” is the motto of this society whose members risk their lives during disasters and other emergencies to rescue their fellowmen whose lives are in danger.

After he was released on bail, LBM asked for understanding and forgiveness from the SCAN members who sued him. He appealed to them to drop the cases they filed against him. But it is doubtful if the people he libeled will take that as a retraction or an apology because he made a threatening statement as soon as he asked them to drop the case. He said that if they don’t drop the cases they filed, he would counter-sue.

Some members of the media see it as being very irregular that a libel case was filed against LBM in the provinces. What’s irregular with that? The SCAN members filed their complaint against Menorca in the provinces because they live there. Are these journalists suggesting that those who sued Menorca should have filed their complaint in Metro Manila so that LBM won’t be inconvenienced?

Some reporters and columnists even questioned the judges who issued the arrest warrant. One columnist even contemptuously asked, “And the judges ordering the arrest of Menorca—didn’t they have anything better to do?”

Releasing the arrest warrant is important as part of legal procedure. Once it is served, justice may take its course. What the judges did was the right thing to do.

With the way some newspaper, radio, and TV networks have been reporting LBM’s arrest, judiciary and the law enforcement of the country are being cast in a bad light.

Some of the recklessly written reports even insinuate that the court and police were coerced to release and serve the arrest warrant. Floating that idea without evidence is unfair to the authorities who were merely performing their duty.

The aforementioned PDI editorial claimed that the arrest of LBM is a proof that maybe his life is in real danger. But wasn’t it the police who arrested him? Does the editorial writer mean to insinuate that the police are a threat to Menorca? That’s very unfair to the men and women of the PNP.

Despite the repeated denial of the INC, that editorial implied that the INC had a hand in the arrest of LBM.

The Inquirer editorial took a swipe at the statement of INC spokesman Edwil Zabala, saying his statement was “curiously phrased.” Zabala was just telling the truth and stating the facts.

What was “curiously” written was that editorial—the events that it reported were tendentiously presented to favor Menorca and to conjure up a negative image of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (i.e., entrap, highly irregular, curiously phrased, subvert, chilling, etc.).

And yet the Inquirer claims to be a newspaper of fearless views and balanced news. Fearless views? I don’t know if we can call them that. Perhaps pandering views would be more accurate. Balanced news? Certainly not.

#philippedailyinquirer #iglesianicristo #INC #pdi #biasreporting #biasedmedia