THE Court of Appeals has upheld its February 2023 ruling allowing the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to compel Felix Nathaniel “Angel” Manalo II, the estranged brother of Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) executive minister Eduardo Manalo, to reveal the identities of witnesses and submit summaries of their testimonies in the illegal firearms and ammunition case filed against him and several others.
In a two-page resolution promulgated last September 11, the appellate court’s Former Ninth Division held that Manalo II, his nephew Victor Erano Manalo Hemedez, Jonathan Ledesma and Jojo Indek Moreno failed to raise new arguments that would warrant the reversal of the assailed ruling.
“After a careful review of the petitioners’ motion, we find that the instant motion deserves scant consideration. As observed by the Office of the Solicitor General in its comment, the arguments put forward by petitioners have been sufficiently addressed in our February 23, 2023 decision,” the CA decision penned by Associate Justice Jaime Fortunato Caringal and concurred with by Associate Justices Louis Acosta and Ramon Cruz said.
“All told, in the absence of a novel argument raised by the accused-appellant, we find no compelling reason to modify, much less reverse our February 23, 2023 decision. In view of the foregoing, the instant motion for reconsideration is denied,” the CA added.
The appellate court held that the Quezon City RTC did not abuse its discretion when it directed Manalo II and the other petitioners to disclose the names of the three witnesses they intended to present to the court.
The petitioners insisted that revealing the names of the witnesses would violate their right against self-incrimination and prejudice their rights.
But the CA said the right against self-incrimination should be invoked at a proper time.
In September 2022, the appellate court’s Fourteenth Division ruled as illegal the search and seizure conducted by the police on the house of Eduardo’s siblings on March 4, 2017 that led to the recovery of a stash of firearms, ammunition, and gun paraphernalia.
The appellate court also held that all the items seized during the raid are “inadmissible” as evidence, being the “fruit of the poisonous tree.”
The decision reversed and set aside the orders dated March 1, 2019, June 28, 2019, December 27, 2019 and March 11, 2019 issued by the QC RTC which denied the motions of the petitioners to suppress evidence, seeking the exclusion of the evidence obtained from the illegal search.
Police had filed a case for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition against the petitioners while direct assault with frustrated murder charges were filed against Ledesma, who reportedly shot PO2 Henry Hular and PO3 Joemarie Oandasan, members of the Special Reaction Unit of Quezon City Police District during the implementation of the search warrant.
The cases were raffled to Branch 216 of the Quezon City RTC.
On March 4, 2017, the police said they received a telephone call from the OIC of the INC security department reporting that one of their guards accidentally found a hidden room containing assorted firearms, ammunition, explosives, gun paraphernalia and accessories inside the house of Lolita “Lottie” Manalo Hemedez.
The policemen, escorted by INC security guards, proceeded to the area which is adjacent to the house of Manalo II and inspected the hidden room where they allegedly saw the seized items.
The feud among the members of the Manalo family erupted in 2015 over an alleged attempt to oust Eduardo as INC’s leader by some of its senior members, including his siblings.
The INC property also became embroiled in the dispute and was the subject of a court case between the INC leadership and the expelled Manalo siblings.
