‘I stand by my man,’ says Menorca wife amid adultery raps

Inquirer, Philippines/February 13, 2016

By Yuji Vincent Gonzales

Jingky Otsuka-Menorca, the wife of expelled Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) member Lowell Menorca, was unfazed by the adultery complaint filed against her husband on Friday.

Otsuka said the adultery case filed by a certain Davis Flores, an INC member claiming to be Menorca’s “long-time acquaintance,” was the latest move of the influential sect to harass and intimidate her husband.

"When they saw they couldn’t break us, they resorted to this vile and calculated scheme to embarrass and discourage Lowell. The timing of the legal case is interesting because Lowell is about to testify again at the next hearing on the Amparo case,” Otsuka said in a statement.

“To the people behind this continuing harassment and these latest insinuations, know this – I STAND BY MY MAN. If you expect [these] concerted attacks on my husband to break either one of us, you are sadly mistaken. Your dirty tactics do not surprise us and everyone else who’s been following this story unfold,” she added.

Menorca shot to prominence after accusing the INC leadership of ordering his abduction in Sorsogon province and a three-month detention at the INC central compound in Quezon City last year. He was freed from jail in January upon posting bail, after being arrested while on his way to the Court of Appeals in highly irregular circumstances over a libel suit filed in Lanao del Norte.

Menorca was slapped with a second libel complaint signed by a Marawi court, and a third one in Cavite.

Assisted by his lawyer Kristoffer Purisima, Flores on Friday filed an adultery complaint before the Manila City Prosecutor’s Office, claiming that his estranged wife Aedtnavye Lazo was having an affair with Menorca since 2008.

In his complaint, Flores cited the delivery of expensive food to their house, expensive gifts to Lazo such as a pink stuffed toy dog and a high-end smartphone, suspicious text messages, “incriminating pictures” of his wife and Menorca online, and Menorca’s alleged secret blog “where he proudly documented his adulterous affair.”

Amid the allegations, Otsuka remained supportive of her husband, saying that the recent “attacks” will not break their relationship.

“Congratulations because you have successfully shown to the whole world all the more how desperate you are that you will resort to anything to intimidate and harass us. And don’t bother to deny it because no one of right mind believes you anyway,” Otsuka said.

“This has you written all over it. Do your worst trick, use the brethren’s hard-earned money, your power and influence to crush us to the ground but we shall rise again because we have God and the truth on our side. And if this is your version of ‘Christianity’, then may God have mercy on the next generation of ‘Christians’ you are going to raise,” she added.

But reacting to allegations that INC had a hand in the case, Flores’ lawyer Purisima told INQUIRER.net that their filing of an adultery complaint was an “independent move” and evidence-based.

“This is an independent action by my client. My client is the one aggrieved here. He’s the victim… What we’re after here is the truth,” Purisima said in an interview.

“If there’s no truth to the allegations made by our client, then this would be the perfect opportunity for him and the wife to controvert these allegations, to clear their names so to say. We only file based on evidence, based on what we believe is true,” he added.