Manila: Members of a powerful non-Catholic Christian group that can command block-voting had to contend with “people-power” after they ousted five founding members who were allegedly held hostage in their own palatial homes in suburban Quezon City, sources said.
Eduardo Manalo, executive minister of the Church of Christ (INC), ousted his mother Cristina “Tenny” Manalo, sister Lolita Manalo Hemedez, and two brothers, Felix Nathaniel “Angel” Manalo, Marco Erano Villanueva Manalo because “they started questioning INC’s finances, religious teachings, and why nine INC ministers went missing,” former INC minister Roel Rosal told Gulf News.
“They are now held in their own homes, without food, water, and electricity. They have been posting on their windows these alarming signs: We are hostages. Where are the missing ministers,” said Rosal. The police denied the report.
But ardent INC members vowed to continue holding vigils for the ousted Manalo’s near INC’s cathedral-like church on Commonwealth Avenue.
Rosal and several other INC members brought bottled water, candles, and food which they threw pass the shut gates of the Manalo compound. Rosal said groups were organised hours after INC general evangelist Bienvenido Santiago confirmed on Thursday that “the mother and three siblings of INC executive minister were ousted”.
INC’s top minister and council “could not accept that other people would disturb and divide INC,” explained Santiago.
It was in response to the one-minute video uploaded on YouTube on Wednesday which showed Manalo’s mother and brothers saying, “Our lives are in danger.”
“Please also help the INC ministers who were abducted in the provinces and have remained missing up to now. I wish I could speak to my son,” said the Manalo matriarch.
The video was meant “to get sympathy from INC members so they (the ousted Manalos) could take over INC’s management,” said spokesman Santiago. “It should be known by everyone that the INC is not a family corporation, that it is a religion which followed the principles and teachings of God as written in the Bible,” he added.
Meanwhile, Isias Samson, former editor of Pasugo, INC’s newsletter said, “There were reports of corruption in Sanggunian, the INC’s top council.” He did not say if the executive minister was involved in it.
Samson revealed that he was placed on house arrest after the was suspended by church leaders.
In a blog “INC-Silent No More” which is maintained by Antonio Ramirez, three names of missing INC ministers were revealed.
Explaining the impact of INC’s power struggle, a politician who requested for anonymity said. “It could affect all the politicians who seek INC’s endorsement to win in 2016. A disunited INC means loss of block votes for aspiring politician.”
The ousted Manalos are INC’s direct line of heirs. Felix Manalo founded the INC in 1914. His son, Eduardo “Erdy” Manalo, married to Cristina “Teena” Manalo, became executive minister from 1963 to 2009. Erdy’s son Eduardo became INC’s current executive minister in 2009.
