An attack on INC

Batas Mauricio

SEN. Aquilino Pimentel III got it all wrong when he said that “the investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of a criminal complaint filed by an expelled Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) member against leaders of the Christian sect is not an attack against the group and has nothing to do with religion.”

Pardon me, Senator Koko, but it is clear that the DOJ investigation is an attack against the INC itself, clearly taken advantage of and is now being orchestrated by powerful forces in the Philippines which seek to compel or arm-twist, as it were, INC leaders to vote for their favored candidates in the 2016 elections.

Actually, that criminal complaint by an expelled INC member was already dismissed and discredited much earlier by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) whose agents interviewed complainants and witnesses to the supposed abduction and kidnapping. But DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima chose to disregard the NBI findings and even coordinated the filing of the charges with the DOJ.

Why would de Lima disregard the NBI findings which, in law, is presumed to have been arrived at regularly, and in the discharge of official functions? Why would she make a public display of her rejection of the NBI findings through a press conference participated in by many mediamen?

Much as de Lima and the Aquino government wanted to portray this as a regular discharge of the secretary’s duties and responsibilities, the truth has a way of getting out: de Lima, as the secretary of justice, did not have the power to entertain any criminal case. Yet, she took over the serious illegal detention case against top INC leaders, in gross violation of existing laws and regulations from the Supreme Court.

Now, tell the Filipino people: what could have been the motivation for de Lima to disregard existing laws and regulations? Why was she so greatly interested to continue the investigation of the serious illegal detention case against INC’s top officials? Obviously, somebody wanted to shackle the INC by its neck to make it conform to its wishes.

Whatever de Lima did, therefore, amounted to an attack against the INC as an organization. It was not a mere discharge of her duties and responsibilities, for it was not her duty and responsibility to conduct, much less coordinate, a preliminary investigation of any criminal offense. That duty pertains to city or provincial prosecutors.

The Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure, passed and made effective Dec. 1, 2000 by the Supreme Court, and the National Prosecution Service Act, listed the proper officials who will conduct the preliminary investigation of criminal cases, and de Lima, as justice secretary, is not one of them.

Surely, there is much more than meets the eye in her decision to take on the case. The interesting thing in all these is, did she do it on her own? Clearly, the answer is no. She was clearly doing the bidding of forces far more powerful than she is, forces that wanted to reduce the INC to a whimpering organization kowtowing to their whims come election time.
E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com