LEGAZPI CITY, Nov. 3 (PNA) -- The Society of Communicators and Networkers (SCAN) International filed on Monday a libel complaint against Lowell Minorca II, an excommunicated evangelical worker of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC), with the City Prosecutors Office, Hall of Justice building in Barangay Rawis, this city.
Ariel Guab Higuit, SCAN president-Albay Chapter, and several members of the group trooped to the City Prosecutors Office at about 12:20 p.m. Monday to file the libel complaint against Minorca.
In a phone interview, Higuit said their complaint was received by lawyer Cristine Bernarte of the City Prosecutosr Office here and was docketed under V-02-INV-15K-00371.
He said the libel complaint stemmed from Minorca's interview on Oct. 28 on a national television network, saying that the SCAN network is being used by the INC as a “hit squad” against those who run against top officials of the INC.
Higuit said Minorca’s malicious statement outrightly discredited SCAN's members and put the organization in a bad light.
Minorca was a former INC pastor in Sorsogon who reported to the authorities that he was kidnapped and detained after exposing irregularities inside the INC organization.
Higuit said the libel complaint will still be processed and hopefully by next week, the case will be raffled to choose the local trial court to hear the case.
He said SCAN, a national and international communications network with various chapters across the country, has already filed libel complaints against Minorca.
The SCAN official said in Bicol, their group has seven chapters, all of which will file separate libel complaints against Minorca.
SCAN is a communications network operating for about 25 years as a first aid and rescue network with thousands of volunteer-members who are also INC members.(PNA) FPV/FGS/MSA/CBD