INC on Arroyo, Corona and INC lawyers

Never ending issues being thrown to INC even though the church has nothing to do with politics. INC is always mentioned when there are members who are government officials, are joined in controversies. For example, Bro. Cerafin Cuevas, a member of the church, decided to help Renato Corona on the impeachment, here are the reporters/media and gossipers who conclude that the INC is also supporting Corona...

While we, cannot notice any news that the religion of non INC lawyers are being mentioned in the news when controversies came.

Why is it that media is so UNFAIR when they are reporting news related to the INC or INC members? Does a member represents the church as a whole? So, if a catholic lawyer would support Corona, does that mean the Roman Catholic Church also supports Corona?

INC Government officials are just members, they are not REPRESENTATIVES of the INC. The INC do not meddle on politics. If INC have a stand about a particular issue, then the statement should come from Bro. Bienvenido Santiago INC spokesman, or direct from the church administration or maybe through the Representative of Alagad Partylist.


Common sense please...


Ill just post the malicious news from the web associating the church with the INC government officials and an interesting article of a member of the church about profession and religion...


Arroyo join forces with Iglesia ni Cristo

THROW in religion and perhaps my enemy would have second thoughts in seemingly trying to make a martyr of me.
This could have crossed the mind of former President and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga province when her camp officially announced late this week that she had hired the legal services of Artemio Tuquero—an Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) member and Justice chief of the Estrada administration—to defend her from charges of electoral sabotage filed by the government.

Tuquero was short-listed for the position of Ombudsman but President Benigno Aquino 3rd appointed retired Supreme Court (SC) Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales.

He was appointed as a member of the Judicial and Bar Council but was later on not reappointed by President Aquino and was replaced by lawyer Jose Mejia as the JBC representative for the academe.

Tuquero said that his being the former president’s lawyer had everything to do with the legal profession.

“Being a lawyer for GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) has nothing to do with my religion,” he explained.

According to sources of The Manila Times, the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) and President Aquino are engaged in a “cold war” over his allegedly making negative remarks against the politically influential religious group.

The INC endorsed then-Sen. Aquino as its official candidate in the May 2010 presidential race but was said to be ignored later when the senator won.

The INC is known for its block-voting policy and many politicians seek its endorsement in every election.

The only INC member who still holds the job given him by Mr. Aquino is Director Magtanggol Gatdula of the National Bureau of Investigation.

The relationship between the INC and Malacañang even became more sour after Rep. Niel Tupas of Iloilo province, the chairman of the House justice committee, disclosed that the church was helping then-Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez in her move to junk an impeachment complaint against her before the House of Representatives.

Gutierrez then was represented by another INC member—former Supreme Court (SC) Justice Sera-fin Cuevas.

Mrs. Arroyo and husband, lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo and several others are facing poll-sabotage charges before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly manipulating results of the 2004 elections for senators.

During preliminary investigation on Thursday, Tuquero made a manifestation, saying that they will file the appropriate motion before the DOJ and the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which are jointly hearing the charges against the Arroyos and the others who are accused.

He questioned the impartiality of the DOJ-Comelec panel in the conduct of the preliminary investigation, saying that he was worried that the right to due process of his client would be violated.

Tuquero said that there might already be a pre-judgment of the case based on earlier pronouncements of the DOJ and the Comelec that some individuals would be charged in court in connection with the alleged election fraud.

Once the joint panel dismissed the motion, Tuquero said that they will file a petition before the Supreme Court seeking to stop the ongoing investigation.

The camp of the respondents in the alleged election fraud were furnished with copies of the criminal complaint and a report of the fact-finding team and the complaint-affidavit of Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd.

The panel set the next hearing for November 14, 2011 before which the respondents will have submitted their counter- affidavits.


source: manilatimes.net

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83 year old veteran lawyer leads defense of Chief Justice in Impeachment Trial

MANILA, Philippines—The daunting task to prove the innocence of Chief Justice Renato Corona nearly caused his lead counsel to turn down his request to represent Corona in his impeachment trial in the Senate.
Serafin Cuevas, a retired Supreme Court justice, said he was reluctant to take on the challenge to defend Corona because of the physical demands of the job as lead counsel.
He said he also considered the several cases pending in the high tribunal that his law office had been handling.
“This is no ordinary case. I know I may have to stay in the Senate as late as 9 p.m. just to argue our point,” Cuevas told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“I’m already 83 and I’m not getting any younger. I know this is a big burden for me,” he continued.
According to Cuevas, a high court official informed him that Corona had been looking for him after reports spread that the House would file the articles of impeachment against the chief justice.
He said he was actually “avoiding” talking with Corona since he knew that Corona would eventually convince him.
“When I visited the chief justice, he told me he wanted me to be his lead counsel because he saw me argue similar cases before,” Cuevas said.
“His wife (Ma. Cristina) wept when she spoke to me. So I consulted my family and they allowed me,” he continued.
The octogenarian lawyer said it took him two weeks to accept Corona’s invitation to lead a battery of over 30 seasoned litigation lawyers to prove his innocence.
He said his being a former associate of the Supreme Court also prompted him to be at the forefront in defending the institution.
Cuevas was appointed to the high court by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos on June 1, 1984. But he resigned after a popular uprising ended the Marcos dictatorship two years later.
“The attacks were directed against the Supreme Court and it pains my heart being a former associate justice,” he said. “What they (House panel) were saying were not true. A chief justice cannot prevail over the members of the court.”
He also doused speculations that his decision to join Corona’s defense team was an indication that the chief justice had the support of the influential Iglesia ni Cristo.

Said Cuevas: “The perception of the people is that wherever Cuevas goes, there goes the Iglesia Ni Cristo. But I’m only a member of the church. I happen to be a chief legal counsel of the Iglesia. But I’m not a minister or a deacon.”

As lead counsel, Cuevas said he would conduct the cross-examination of all the prosecution witnesses that the House panel would present in the witness stand.

source: inquirer.net

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Our Profession, Our Religion
I actually just want to comment to how the people think about us, members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo.

Just recently, there was a news report saying that the Iglesia Ni Cristo is backing up former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the electoral sabotage charges filed by the government against her.
Actually, there is no official statement of the INC about this. The church administration will inform us if the whole church needs to do a thing in unity.
What really happens is that the former President and now a Pampanga representative, hired the legal service of Atty. Artemeo Tuquero who is a member of the INC.
If you are open-minded, and not one of those who are persecuting the Iglesia Ni Cristo, you’ll understand that when we are doing our profession, the one who is involved here is the professional not the whole church. If Atty. Tuquero will serve as the attorney of Rep. Gloria Arroyo, it doesn’t mean that the whole Iglesia Ni Cristo will serve as attorney of the former president.
This is just the same to if Mrs. Arroyo will hire a lawyer who is a Catholic. You will not of course think that the whole Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines will serve as lawyer of the Mrs. Arroyo, just because his lawyer is a Catholic. Now, why then if her lawyer is a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo the people would immediately think that the whole church, Iglesia Ni Cristo, is backing up Mrs. Arroyo?
Well. Actually, it’s not the first. A lot of times that people or non-members of the INC are treating us unfairly. If one of the members of the INC committed a mistake, people would consider that mistake of one member of the church as the mistake of the whole church. For example: If a member of the church committed murder, people especially those in the media would report that the Iglesia Ni Cristo committed murder.
However, if a Catholic or a Protestant committed murder, people or the media would NOT say that the Catholic or whatever the name of the church that he was a member of committed a crime, instead they would mention the name of the criminal.

Actually, I just couldn’t understand why people treat us like that. …

source: jmlaplana.com