August
28, 2015 – thousands of Iglesia Ni Cristo members formed in front of the
Department of Justice for their so-called “Prayer Vigil” The root cause of this
massive formation of INC members was the belief that the DOJ is interfering on
their religion, particularly with their internal issues. Prior to this
scenario, Isaias Samson, former member of INC, accused higher officials of INC
of illegally detaining him and his family. According to Samson’s statement, his
family was prohibited to leave their house, or even call anybody, which
according to him, was harassment. Samson also said on his statement that the
INC officials did such act for they believe that he created a blog exposing
alleged anomalies within their religion, although the article was named after
the author Antonio Ebanghelista.
Samson was the former Editor-in-Chief of the INC’s official publication.
Samson
and his family filed charges of harassment, illegal detention, threats, and
coercion against members of the Sanggunian,
the INC’s administrative council. After the filing of the charges, members of
INC believe that the Justice Department was giving “extraordinary attention” to the cases, and for them, this is an
apparent intervention of the DOJ on their religion. Moreover, they also
emphasized on their prayer vigil the so-called Separation of Church and State – which they believe being violated
by the Justice Department.
Was
the action of the INC members appropriate in terms of exercising their rights
for freedom of expression?
- Definitely
yes! They were able to express their stand regarding the issue. In fact, I
really adore their unity. This is one of the many religious groups out there
where you can really see unity. However, I don’t think they are fighting for
the right reason. I mean, they immediately formed a massive crowd without even
scrutinizing the real issue here. Speaking of the massive crowd, I really feel
awful for the commuters (students, workers, etc.) and other commoners for
experiencing delay, hassle and inconvenience. I’ve read a lot of posts on
social media expressing their dismay about the inconvenience they’ve been
through caused by this massive crowd. I definitely have nothing against their
formation. I respect it. It’s how they express their faith. However, as they
utilize this freedom of expression, they must also take into considerations,
some possible effects of their act (heavy traffic, inconvenience, garbages,
noise etc.), that would certainly affect members or non-members of INC.
Do
you think the “Separation of Church and State” was violated in this case?
- The
1987 Philippine Constitution declares: The Separation of Church and State is
Inviolable. Under this policy, the state shall not interfere with the affairs
of the church and vice-versa. And in this case, I don’t think that this
Separation of Church and State was violated in any way. According to the Ateneo
Professor and Religion Sociologist Jayeel Cornello, the DOJ is just merely
doing its usual function as a government agency. There were charges filed and
the Justice Department doesn’t have a choice but to act upon these cases. “They can protest if they want to, but the
issue is not religious”, said Cornello. In fact, these cases (harassment,
illegal detention, threats, and coercion) are not religious matters at all. So
I don’t think DOJ is intervening their doctrine, faith or religion in general.
The Department of Justice can confidently say: Trabaho lang po, walang
personalan.
As
a member or non-member of any religious group, do you believe that this issue
is about the religion?
-
No. There was no religious matter being violated at all, this is all about
human rights. Hence, the issue itself doesn’t have to do with religion. There
was just misinterpretation and misconception of the real issues here.
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