Case Unclosed by Arnold Clavio

It was 3 years ago when one of his subordinates charged him with homosexual rape and sodomy.

“It was my spiritual birthday. He summoned me and I went thinking he was going to give me a gift. As it turned out, that was the gift. The same thing he did to the previous year.”

This was the revelation of the subordinate, with sadness still reflected in his eyes. One can only imagine the grief victims of rape must carry.

“It was in May of 2000 when he summoned me to his room. I was shocked at what followed. At that time I couldn’t resist his advances. There is a teaching in Ang Dating Daan which says the messenger of God does not commit sin, whatever he does to you. At that time, I was really terrified of him and there is a teaching in Ang Dating Daan that one must Soriano him at all times. Obey him,  otherwise you’ll be cursed. Something really really bad will happen to you if you disobey this supposed messenger of God.

“Rape was the charge. It is true, or is it a case of libel?” continues Clavio. “The case cannot proceed if the accused is not present because the accused needs to be arraigned in court” so say the lawyers of the subordinate. The subordinate thinks that if Soriano was in the Philippines, he will surely be in jail based on the evidences against him.

Clavio said he tried to contact Eli Soriano or any of his representatives to get their side of the story but did not get any response.

“If I don’t fight and speak up a lot of people will be in danger, and they need to know what he really is and that he is not sinless and he is not true.” the subordinate continues.

Soriano is a registered Brazilian resident and is currently seeking Brazilian citizenship. Brazil has no extradition agreement with Brazil. The case is held in court because Eli Soriano will not face his accuser. His next arraignment is August 11, 2009 at 8:30 am.

The Philippines anti-rape law Republic Act No. 8353 describes rape as any forceful act by man or woman against another.

Although Soriano denies any involvement or wrong doing, his appearance is the only way to clear things up.

95th anniversary iglesia ni cristo

Anyway, my point is that Eliseo Soriano is an international fugitive, wanted in the Philippines of the crime of homosexual rape and sodomy. Although all accused persons should be assumed innocent until proven guilty, the very fact of running from the law, and eluding justice gives a regular observer like me a strong feeling that maybe the accused is really guilty. But I digress from the my main point which is, Eliseo Soriano is an international fugitive wanted by the law. Interpol is asking for help from anyone with any information that would lead to his arrest. They are asking anyone with information to contact your local police for information.

Soriano’s group in the Philippines is still active, although not as virulent as before. They still collect money from their hapless followers to support Eliseo Soriano’s semi-permanent vacation overseas, living in a nice house and touring the world while his followers, most belonging to poor families, continue to struggle in this difficult time. Soriano’s group know where he his but would not help the police to locate him. Isn’t that continued harboring of a fugitive? I don’t know if there is a Philippine law concerning this, but in the U.S., this could get you in jail.

A few other people would probably know where he is. Soriano posted their names and telephone number on his youtube site.

Here are the names and numbers of the people who may know where Eliseo Soriano is and should inform the local police of his whereabouts. I wonder what would happen if I send this page to the police in all the countries listed below?

Philippines
(02) 455-8480
(02) 455-8482
(02) 455-8484

UNITED KINGDOM:
Bro. Ramon Bernardo:
+447810824237
Bro. Noel Gonzales:
+447799217028
Sis. Vhe Privado:
+447919532087
Locale No.:
+442082889651

SINGAPORE:
Bro. Aga Caacbay:
+ 6596777627
Bro. Michael del Rosario:
+6597442121
Bro. Robert Navoa:
+6597270842
Bro. Jun Gundayao:
+6591915513

HONG KONG:
Bro. Nang Fat Sze:
(852)62590045
Bro. Ferdie Petalio:
(852)62296075

Guilty!

No, not yet anyway. It’s just such a catchy title that I couldn’t resist.
But I am wondering. If ever Eliseo Soriano, founder, former presiding minister and former leader of the cult Ang Dating Daan – MCGI would ever decide to surrender or get caught and extradited back to the Philippines, would he be found guilty or would he be exonerated?

For now, nobody knows. Until and unless the wheels of justice are allowed to turn no one will ever know the outcome. If it’s true that Soriano left the Philippines sometime in 2005 then he had been on the run for almost 4 years now.

WANTED: Soriano Eliseo

Of the 18 male fugitives of Philippine nationality on the Interpol Wanted list, only two are accused of sex crimes. Both of them are supposed to be preachers of God’s word. One is a catholic priest and the other is Eliseo Fernando Soriano. The priest is accused of raping a 14 year old girl, a member of his parish. Soriano is accused of raping a male subordinate. Any accused person should be considered innocent until proven guilty. The law requires the accused to face his accuser in a court of law and there prove his accuser wrong.

The rape accusation is not the only legal problem facing Soriano should he decide to come back to the Philippines. There are also a few libel cases filed against him by the Iglesia ni Cristo and also by the Muslims. The one filed by the Muslims stemmed from  some unsavory remarks made by Eliseo Soriano against Muslims and their prophet. This was broadcasted in one of his daily talk shows where he regularly spew diatribe against regular people, politicians and other religious organizations. And get this, he does his daily sermons via CD-rom. So there is a chance that Muslims have a copy of this episode.

Muslims protest Soriano

Anyway, the lawsuit by the Muslims calls for PHP1 billion in damages. That’s a lot of money! And because he hasn’t been in the Philippines for quite a while I’m pretty sure his resources are on the lean side. You see, Soriano get his money from his members and his many businesses one of which is selling cooked food which he says he prepares himself. Without him, I guess no one will prepare and sell the food.

The Muslims claim in their lawsuit that Soriano “uttered malicious sweeping … imputation of crimes … against them(Muslims)” which they say “exposed them to dishonor, disgrace, shame…”. Soriano,  as is the case in all of his legal troubles, denies he did what he’s accused of. But do the Muslims have a case? Can they show proof that indeed Soriano maligned them and their prophet? Well, you be the judge. Here’s Eliseo Soriano and what he said about Muslims. I got his off of youtube and cut the other stuff to leave just the part where he calls Muslims killers and then proceeded to malign even their prophet.

Here’s the transcript translated in english:

Soriano: “That’s what Muslims do. I’m not saying this because I’m crazy and I have a death wish because they indeed kill.”

Soriano: “You encounter a Muslim, they’ll criticize the bible. They say the bible is wrong. I say, they’re crazy. I tell them ‘well if the bible is wrong then why are you using it to justify Mohammad’s prophecy?’ They say the one mention in Deuteronomy 1*:18-19 is Mohammad and then they turn and criticize the bible. They criticize the bible and then use it to justifies Mohammad’s prophecy then you’re crazy, even Mohammad is crazy”.

As you can see, Soriano does not have even an iota of respect for leaders of other religions and regularly maligns them. You probably seen and heard how he libels leaders of the Iglesia ni Cristo.

There you go. I think the Muslims have enough evidence. One billion pesos is a lot of money. Soriano will be very hard pressed to produce this amount. As usual, Eliseo Soriano swears to high heaven saying the original of this tape was doctored and fabricated. He thought this would be enough. But then comes an expert in voice recognition who challenged him to submit to tests that would prove either the voice was from someone else, or is it really Soriano’s. Typical of Soriano, he maligns the expert and questioned his intention. Anyone who is not guilty will welcome the chance to prove his accusers  wrong. Not Eli.

Big mouth

It’s looking really grim for Soriano. I personally don’t think he’ll ever go back to the Philippines. Like what I’ve said in a previous blog, Soriano’s end is here and now. The instrument he used to become popular, his big mouth, is the same instrument that brought him crashing down. Goodbye Eli, and good night.

Ask the fugitive

Eli Soriano, the fugitive televangelist wanted by the Interpol fashions himself as a great biblical resource. He even allows himself to be called “Pantas” or wise man. Lofty, isn’t it? He sports many monikers such as “the most sensible preacher of our times”, “phenomenal preacher”, “Walking bible”, “Modern Jeremiah”, “the appointed one”, “he who holds the key”, and others. He even stole my handle, truthcaster.  Other terms he uses to describe himself are “tech savvy” and “human encyclopedia”.

Ask the fugitive

But is he really all that? I looked into a few of his pronouncements and found a lot of weird stuff. Let’s together see if this man they call “wise man” make sense at all. Let’s take a look at just three things for now.

1. Sepoys of Cainta, Rizal:

In one episode of his Philippine talk show, he was asked why some people in Cainta, Rizal, Philippines where considerably darker than others.

Not even pausing to ponder the question, he said the reason was that the sun beats extra hot in Cainta, Rizal. Yup, that’s what he said. He said this bit with full authority as if he knew what he was talking about.  He made it sound that, as a matter of fact, the sun is just hotter in Cainta, Rizal. He didn’t explain why this is so. There maybe a few reasons why the sun would beat extra harder or hotter in a certain spot, but would this make someone darker permanently? I can see some people may get a tan but to permanently change the color of the skin, and then pass this on to their children sounds a little over-reaching.

The Iglesia ni Cristo religious program Ang Tamang Daan, obviously and rightfully, not wanting this bad information to be taken as fact immediately responded with a correction and a lesson to impart an important historical detail. The reason why some people of Cainta, Rizal of considerably darker is because they are descendants of Sepoys who elected to remain in the Philippines. The Sepoys where Indians who served in the British army.

Way to go “wise man”. One strike for you.

Ask the fugitive

2. Roman 13:13

Again in an episode of his talkshow, supposedly televangelizing. A listener ask him to explain Roman 13:13. The conversation was in Tagalog and the verse as written in tagalog goes like this: “Magsilakad tayong mahinhin, gaya ng sa araw;”.This is the  verse in English: “Let us behave properly as in the day“. And

In tagalog “araw” can mean the “sun“, or “day“. Guess which one “Mr Walking Bible” picked as the meaning of “araw” for this particular verse? The wrong one of course. The way he explained it made it even more hilarious. He said, the verse instruct people to walk gracefully, just as the sun glides gracefully across the sky from morning to night. If he had only truly understood the verse, or at least read the verse in English he could have saved him a lot of embarrassment.

Way to go “Walking bible”. two strikes.

Disqualified Soriano campaigning

3. In another episode, Soriano tells his members they can run for public office. Then he Soriano said :”But I will not join politics. I will not run as a candidate (for office). Why? Imagine, a preacher running for public office? Can one serve two lords? Christ didn’t allow that.”

Then he turns and run anyway and was disqualified as a nuisance candidate. He should add this to his monikers, “nuisanse”.

Thumbs down

3 strikes. You’re out! and out you should go.

There you go. Just two of the many “wisdom” from the “phenomenal preacher”. Doesn’t he give new meaning to the phrase ‘false preachers’?

Adapted from an episode of the Iglesia ni Cristo television program “Ang Tamang Daan”.

Eli Soriano babysitting

It’s been quiet for a few days now. Those friends of mine Eli Soriano fanatics who’ve been writing nasty editorials and passing them as news. The likes of Abao and Garcia and their fellow fanatic cult followers. But I still have a slight problem. They haven’t taken down those post and blog entries. And a few others, like Joseph Herdon started taking their place and writing on their blogs. I really want this to stop that’s why I’ve been holding off publishing a few articles.

You see, the fugitive accused rapist same-sex sodomizer Eli Soriano built his career by libeling and maligning innocent people. His modus operandi is to rouse mob mentality and ignore reason and then follow it up with his racketeering to raise money to support his dirty deeds. Well, that’s all about to stop because he himself has taken away his primary stage, which is the podium. He allegedly committed rape, now he’s wanted by the law. He can’t fight this in court because he knows he’ll lose and that would bring the immediate demise of his career. So he opted to be a fugitive, and be a simple blogger where at least he can still write and milk money from the few gullible followers he still has. But his end is almost certain. He can’t do this for a long time. The long arms of the law will catch up with him.

Eli Soriano comtemplating his predicament

His sidekick Daniel Razon knows where Soriano  is, as well as all of the MICs and of course Jane Abao and her troop of writers/libelers. I also have pictures of some of his followers dated sometime in 2007 with their fugitive leader. If they continue to help him hide and not tell the police where he is, this makes them guilty of harboring a known fugitive. Truly a cult full of criminals.

I hope they stop libeling and maligning so I too can stop and concentrate on what I really wanted to do. All I wanted from the start to for them to stop their libel and remove all libelous post. If they don’t, we keep going. See you losers at the finish line. Eat my dust suckas.

Newsvine logo

I came across a post by a certain Jane Abao at newsvine.com which was made to look like a news report. In this blog, Abao claims that a certain Pastor Reckart from Tampa, Florida added himself as one of Soriano’s shills who were supposedly “twitting” Executive Minister Erano Manalo into debating the fugitive Soriano. Let me respond to that blog.

First off let me just state that I am an avowed admirer of Executive Minister Manalo. I mean, what is not to admire? He led the Iglesia ni Cristo(InC) into a worldwide church in only 41 years! He did this without help from anyone but his God and his fellow ministers and workers. No foreign government, no rich benefactor, no business ventures, no criminal activity, nothing! The InC is now in Rome and Jerusalem! Truly remarkable by any standard.

Rat

Hiding like a rat

Anyway, Soriano is now hiding like a rat being a fugitive from the law, was caused by one person alone, and that is Soriano. Abao in her article claims the InC is hounding and hunting Soriano and says the InC even solicited the help of the Interpol! Yes, she wrote that! Now I know the InC is in a powerful and influential state right now. But I know they don’t meddle in things that doesn’t have anything to do with religion. This is the simple truth; Eli Soriano is wanted by the Interpol because an arrest warrant was issued for him for raping a male subordinate. That’s it. There is no meddling by a third party, let alone the InC. The InC has nothing to do with that case and yet Soriano and his shills continues to maliciously tie the InC to Soriano’s predicament. Abao and her cohorts though , through instructions from someone, quite possibly Soriano, are trying to make the InC the scapegoat in this whole matter.

Soriano angling for a debate

Razon vs Soriano

Soriano’s panties are in a bind because for some reason only he knows, he wants to debate Executive Minister Manalo! I can’t help but shake my head. Soriano debating the InC’s Executive Minister!

Well Soriano, maybe you should first put your teachings in order before challenging Minister Manalo. Let’s watch the contradiction of teachings between Soriano and his second in command Daniel Razon.

Soriano vs Razon

They are both talking about theSexbomb Girls, an all girl singing group best known for their skimpy outfits. Razon in particular was talking about Jopay, a member of the group. This youtube video shows the contradiction and disunity of the teachings of Soriano.

Here’s a transcript of clear contradiction.

Daniel Razon at beginning at 0:33.: “I’m not watching the show. I’m watching Jopay. That’s when Satan comes in”.

Eliseo Soriano at 0:53: “What’s wrong with watching Sexbomb? Even my grand children they look like Sexbombs.”

Soriano, before you get to debate another religious group mayb eyou should put your group in order. Then maybe someone will take you seriously.

I'm with Stupid

In our world today, people associate things with what it looks like. As seen in the movie “Forrest Gump”, people ask Forrest is he’s stupid because to them, he looked “stupid”. It’s not defined in the movie what “stupid” looks like but we all know what the “look” is and why we associate it with stupid. But here’s the classic response of Forrest and it teaches a valuable lesson that we all must learn and benefit from. His reply was “stupid is as stupid does”. What does this phrase mean? It just means that stupidity is not what a person looks like, but for what he does. If a person does stupid things, then that person is indeed stupid. Whether he looks smart, sounds smart, pretends to be smart, calls himself pantas, whatever. If he does stupid things, he’s stupid.

Phillip Garcia

Such is the case of Phillip Garcia whom I’ve written about. In that blog, I’ve pointed out the errors of his ways, explaining to him what constitute libel and the consequences of being found guilty of libel. I’ve quoted the definition of libel hoping he’d understand and realize his mistake, correct himself and move on. Normal people would always steers out of danger when they realize that there is indeed danger looming. But Phillip Garcia is not normal. Much like his idol Eliseo Fernando Soriano, the fugitive televangelist, they carry on with their wrongdoing oblivious of the damage to themselves and the victims of their baseless accusations.

In his latest blog entry, Garcia rehashed the same libelous blog post he posted on newsvine. This time he added scan of what he says are “proofs” of his allegations. Except that he posted are the same reports of INC members allegedly committing crimes. Let me repeat, these are reports of “INC members” allegedly committing crimes. First off, read well Garcia, when citing a newspaper (in Phillip Garcia’s case, that would be tabloids) as sources, one needs to provide the name of the author, the title of the piece, the publication name, the publisher, where the article was published and when it was published. Scans are not enough because for all intents these cans could have been doctored. Next, be absolutely sure you understand what you are doing. Granting that these scans are reliable, one could readily see, the cases are against member of the INC, not the INC itself or its leaders. Therefore, it is libel for Garcia to accuse the INC and its leaders of any crime for as long as these are the sources presented.

Another example, it is not libel for me to say that Eliseo Fernando Soriano is a fugitive is I cite the Interpol Wanted Poster of Soriano. The site is verifiable and from a reliable source and the information can be easily verified as true.

Classic examples worthy of note is the exchanges between Soriano and Ang Tamang Daan host. Soriano calls the INC killers, he get sued for libel because he cannot prove the INC killed anyone. INC ministers calls Soriano an extortionist, Soriano does not sue. Why, because the host have proof that Soriano did indeed extort money from his followers.

Finally, Garcia presented scans of a tabloid called “The Bombshell” which was published in the 1950’s. This tabloid was published by an anonymous writer with an ax to grind against the INC. I know, I have the book.

Prison

So in parting, I again give an advice to both Eliseo Soriano and his shill Phillip Garcia. You disrespected the INC for a long time and they showed patience. Finally, after so many years of lying, where are you now? A fugitive, without a life, a name or a country. Don’t let this shill of yours Phillip Garcia suffer the same fate. You know what to tell him.

To Phillip Garcia, stupid is as stupid does. Don’t be stupid. Don’t do stupid things. Or you might end up in prison.

The “Interpol is the world’s largest international police organization with 187 member countries“, the Philippines being one of them. The organization was created in 1923 to facilitate cooperation, support and assist in combating international crime.

One of their most information activity is global law enforcement, one of which is the apprehension of fugitives.

According to their website, “Fugitives, as a result of their criminal activity, pose a pervasive threat to public safety worldwide. Fugitives are mobile and opportunistic. They frequently finance their continued flight from the law by further criminal activities, which respect no traditional political or geographical boundaries and may result in criminal charges in more than one country.”

They say fugitives undermine the justice system. They describe fugitives as those who have been charged with a violation of the law but have not been arrested because the fled or escaped to avoid prosecution. When fugitives flee, victims are denied justice.

They classify 7 types of notices, one of which is a Red Notice. Though it is not an international arrest warrant, a person with this notice are wanted by national jurisdictions or the country where the crime was committed, and Interpol’s role is to assist in identifying and locating this person with a view to their arrest and extradiction(sent back to the country where the warrant was issued).

The Interpol maintains an official Wanted Fugitives list and this information may be copied and distributed.

The person with these notices should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. To able be to prove their innocence, they have to surrender and let the wheels of justice run their due course. In other words, face the music.

Any member of the public who has information on the location of the wanted person must contact the local police.

The Interpol has a link to search for wanted fugitives. I played around with it and found out 26 people of Philippines nationality are on the list. The youngest was 22 and the oldest was 65 years old. 8 of them where women. Some of them I’ve heard about, like Eliseo Fernando Soriano.

Interpol Wanted Poster of Eliseo Soriano

Soriano has multiple legal cases against him including sodomy, falsification of public documents and libel. These are well document in newspaper reports:

• Manila Standard Today, May 4, 2006, ‘Dating Daan’ leader charged with sodomy.
• Inquirer.net, Aug 29, 2008, Ely Soriano charged with falsification of public document
• The Manila Times, Oct 6, 2007, CA junks evangelist’s plea to stop libel case
• Gulf Times, Apr 4, 2005, 1 billion peso libel charge against a religious leader

Though he should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, there may be some strong evidence that he is really guilty. So although he yells and screams and accuse the Philippine justice system of corruption and unjust, this may just be a smoke screen and he does not intend to face the courts because Soriano himself is sure he will be found guilty by the evidence. Take a look at this Youtube video

This video plays what sounded to be Eliseo Soriano’s as he’s preaching to his followers. I don’t know if it’s boldness or sheer stupidity but here’s Soriano saying to a number of people that he bribed a couple of government officials. Here’s the translation:

Soriano: Now, where can you find a fiscal(a public prosecutor), who called and says “Bro Eli, I have the paperworks. And the response of your lawyer, including the response of the Iglesia is also here.But don’t worry. I will dismiss the lawsuit against you because is lawsuit is nonsense!”.

Soriano: Fiscal, can I have a copy? He said “Yes, I’ll give you a copy.” He gave me a copy. A signed copy. So I was contented. In my gladness I asked him, “Fiscal, is there a favor I can do for you one way or another?”

Soriano: the Fiscal said “Just remember, my wife’s birthday is coming up.” This is true, there Attorney Rosal. he’s my witness if I’m lying or not.

Soriano: the Fiscal said “you can just buy it for me”. So I told someone to ask how much the birthday would cost. They said two hundredd and fifty thousand birthday(250,000 pesos). I gave it to him.

Soriano talking to his listeners: You didn’t know this because I haven’t told you. Now you know, that the just for the fiscal, corruption is huge. 250,000.

TV host talks about another instance of Soriano’s bribery:

Soriano: I applied for a TRO(Temporary Restraining Order), brothers. The lawyer asked me, “Do you have bribery money to get the TRO?”. I said I’ll borrow some.

Soriano: I borrowed bribery money. This is the truth. The Lord in heaven knows this truth. It’s the truth, I bribed someone P500,000. I gave it to the lawyer.

Soriano: I did not know to whose hands did the lawyer gave the money for the TRO. When the TRO was issued, the judge inhibited himself! We lost! Do you see brothers?

Soriano: They asked for P500,000 pesos then you lose? What is that?

As you may see, Soriano does not have any qualms about bribing public officials. It both funny and sad that in the second part, he obviously got played.

With Soriano in hiding, one cannot wonder and ask how he can oversee his followers and continue to deliver his message. Well, he is now reduced to blogging and websites. And as is with his doctrines, he is characteristically undecided what website to promote. There were at least 7 websites that I know of that promoting him, not to count some by his shills. That is all well and good, except there are websites like this one which gives the readers the other side of the coin. For Soriano to effectively and finally clear his name, he needs to surface. Until then, his name is tainted and there is no hope to salvage his refutation.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — It is not easy to upstage one’s own impeachment trial, but Rod R. Blagojevich, the embattled governor of Illinois, appeared on Monday to be doing just that.

As state senators began gathering in this downstate capital city of 116,000 to hear accusations of wrongdoing, overstepping and deal-making in Illinois’ first impeachment trial of a governor, Mr. Blagojevich began a day of national television interviews, aimed at reaching millions, in his own defense.

Repeatedly, Mr. Blagojevich said he was innocent of federal criminal accusations against him — including claims he tried to sell President Obama’s former Senate seat for money, a high-paying job or a cabinet position — and denounced lawmakers’ impeachment trial against him as unfair.

Meanwhile, in a separate issue and source, another public figure is also in legal trouble.

More than three years after an arrest warrant for Televangelist Eliseo Fernando Soriano was issued there’s still no news as to the wearabouts of the controversial self-proclaimed pantas(wiseman). In 2008, news was he surrendered to police and posted bail but that too proved to be untrue and earned Soriano another legal case on his head. On top of these, Muslims are still looking for him and accused him of maligning not only every Muslim faithful but also their prophet. Such are the troubles of this once up and rising televangelist, who at one time rivaled Quiboloy in the number of converts and financial power. But now, all people can think about is this fugitive running from the law.

You can read this as posted on topix.com and carried by untv.

UNTV Website carries news of Eliseo Soriano