Not worth two cents

How did Winnie Monsod—a respected university professor, writer, broadcaster, and economist—turn into rumormonger?

That seems to be the case when she gave her two cents on the arrest of Lowell “Boyet” Menorca II (LBM) last January 20.

In her column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (January 23, 2016), she hinted that the possible reason the libel cases against LBM were filed in provinces far from Metro Manila is to distance the involvement of the Iglesia Ni Cristo Central Office from the said cases.

She wrote, “Two arrest warrants were served on expelled Iglesia ni Cristo worker Lowell Menorca II, both for libel. They were signed by two regional trial court judges all the way from Mindanao—the first by Alberto Quinto of the RTC in Kapatagan (second-class municipality, 2010 population: 53,916), Lanao del Norte, and the second by Wenida Papandayan of Marawi City (“The only Islamic city in the Philippines”), Lanao del Sur. Why anyone in those areas should be exercised about alleged libelous statements made by Menorca, I fail to understand, except if it is to remove the INC center from all blame.”

Is she saying that all those who live in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur are Muslims?

Who knows—it could be plain laziness on Monsod’s part why she failed to ask how many members the Society of Communicators and Networkers (SCAN) has in Mindanao (particularly in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur) or it could be just plain old assumption operating in her when she wrote that.

There’s nothing irregular about SCAN members from Mindanao filing the case against Menorca. The people who sued him live there. So when they saw and heard the news in which LBM was peddling his reckless accusations to the media about SCAN being an alleged hit squad of the INC, it was only natural that the libeled SCAN members file a case in a court near where they live.

Although it is made up of INC members, it was the SCAN members who sued him. We can sympathize with the SCAN members who were hurt to be labeled in the mass media as a hit squad. After risking their life and limb during emergencies to assist and save people, even those who are not members of the Church, they would only be maligned in the media.

An INC member need not seek permission from the Church administration if the person he intends to sue is a non-member. Menorca is no longer a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo. He was expelled last year.

Curiously, LBM, as the video of his arrest showed, was repeatedly shouting that he is a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo. He’s certainly not. Liar, liar pants on fire.

Monsod was also gossiping about the officers of the Manila Police Department (MPD) who should have not given priority to the arrest order, but instead deferred from serving the warrant to allow LBM to testify in court. That sounds selective justice.

She wrote, “They (MPD officers) found him on his way to the Court of Appeals (CA). According to the MPD spokesperson, a decision was made ‘on the ground,’ meaning at the point where they saw Menorca, to give priority to the arrest order rather than to the CA subpoena that Menorca was answering. That doesn’t compute. The decision to arrest couldn’t have been made on the ground, because Menorca was already on his way to the CA. Isn’t it more logical to conclude that the team was bent on preventing Menorca from reaching the court?”

The arresting officers were not preventing Menorca to testify in the CA. All LBM had to do was to post bail, then go to court for cross-examination. If Menorca had done that, the trial would have resumed before lunch break and he would have had his field day in court.

But what caused delay? Monsod should have asked first the precinct officer on duty to get her facts straight. Or maybe Monsod got only the story from Menorca’s side.

Now, about the arresting officers who were not in uniform, ex-Justice Secretary Leila De Lima already said that policemen enforcing an arrest warrant are required to be in uniform, unless there are exceptional circumstances that justify operations in plainclothes. LBM’s case is quite an exceptional circumstance. In a PDI editorial, it said that LBM was “hiding his tracks well.” There was also an arrangement according to Menorca’s driver for LBM and his companions to transfer to another car to go to the CA. What’s with all the cloak and dagger?

Now to make the rumor she is peddling appeal to emotions, Monsod asked how could Mrs. Menorca have the tremendous presence of mind and calm ability to think on her feet to grab the badge and the arrest warrant from the serving officer, hid these in their car, and then came out to help her husband resist the arrest order? How, according to Monsod, could Mrs. LBM do this when she is just a “slender, tiny woman”? But that’s what she did! Look closely at the video and see how she grabbed the warrant. A photo of the crumpled warrant can be Googled. Also Mrs. LBM is not that slender and tiny.

Mrs. Menorca had to be restrained because she was obstructing justice. Her hysteria was plain drama. She did have the presence of mind to grab her mobile phone to make a video recording of the arrest. If they were in real danger, what she did doesn’t make sense. She should have protected her child first instead of videotaping the event. Monsod even thanked the Lord for cell phones for it captured what she believes to be a highly irregular arrest.

But, indeed, thank the Lord for the video that Mrs. LBM took. Even if it’s short, it showed that there is a warrant, that LBM and his companions resisted arrest and obstructed justice.

If only Winnie Monsod cared to get both sides of the story, it all would compute in her foggy mind.