Seventeen Years. One Song. Play It Every Time You Hear His Name.

Today, September 7, marks seventeen years since Eduardo V. Manalo took the seat of Executive Minister of the Iglesia Ni Cristo. The Central Office will call it seventeen years of “dynamic leadership.” Those of us who lived through it, and were thrown out for refusing to stay quiet, have another name for it. From this day forward, on this site and everywhere our brethren gather, these seventeen years will be known by what they actually were: a reign of terror.

We are marking the anniversary the only way that feels right. Not with a program, not with a plaque, but with a song. It is called “The Reign of Terror.” Read the chronology below first. Then press play. And the next time anyone says the letters E-V-M, play it again.

How we got here: a short chronology

2007 to 2008. Ka Erdy, Bro. Eraño G. Manalo, knows his time is short. Upon discovering that Eduardo Manalo and his wife Babylyn Ventura Manalo secretly started the formation of a private group of foreign ministerial students know as the “NewGens” (New Generation) whose main directive was to undermine the current Church Administration under Brother Eraño Manalo. EVM was suspended from his duties as Deputy Executive Minister and was removed from his office. This was only known to the Manalo Family, Sanggunian Ministers, and a few select District Ministers and other people who were privy to EVM’s demotion and was not made public to the congregations as not to cause a scandal in the church. All the underground NewGens ministerial students who were then publicly referred to as STF (Special Task Force) were all removed from the Ministry while some were even expelled as conspirators to insubordination. One particular ministerial student was Jojo De Guzman who was not only expelled with his whole family, Brother Eraño Manalo specifically gave direct orders that he never be allowed to return to the Ministry or the church nor be allowed to enter into their family, a foreshadowing in an effort to prevent what’s about to come. And to further secure the sanctity of the Church Administration and the Iglesia Ni Cristo as a whole, Brother Eraño Manalo issued a directive that upon his death the ministry is to hold an election to choose his successor, and he has it written into amendments to the Church’s Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws, notarized and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Church is not a throne. He wanted the ministry, not a bloodline, to decide.

August 31, 2009. Ka Erdy passes away. Sis. Tenny Manalo, called a few select and trusted Ministers to receive private instructions left by Bro. Eraño Manalo to ensure that the Church will not fall victim to wolves in sheep’s clothing. Eduardo Manalo was not in that meeting.

September 4, 2009. Just 4 days since Bro  Erdy’s passing, Jojo De Guzman and his band of STF brothers were already back at the Central Office. Eduardo Manalo blatantly disregarded his own father’s instructions not to let Jojo De Guzman into into the Ministry and into their family. Jojo De Guzman, was eventually ordained into the ministry and married Eduardo Manalo’s daughter Gemma Manalo exactly as Bro  Erdy forewarned.

September 7, 2009. One week later, even before the grief has settled, Eduardo installs himself as Executive Minister. No election is called. The 2007 and 2008 amendments are set aside and the old 1994 articles are quietly brought back as if Ka Erdy’s instructions had never existed. All the District Ministers who knew about the required election, were either bought or coerced to compliance and silence. This is the day we count from, and this is why we use the word “stole.”

2009 to 2015. The consolidation. Power shifts from the Executive Minister’s office to a tight circle around General Auditor Glicerio “Jun” Santos Jr. and the Sanggunian, with a “Special Task Force” of young men tied to the Manalo household running the sensitive work. The building spree begins: Philippine Arena, Ciudad de Victoria, project after project funded by the offerings of ordinary brethren while the accounting stays sealed. Ministers who ask questions are reassigned, silenced, or worse.

April 2015. This blog is born. We begin publishing what the Sanggunian thought would never leave the Central Office: the money, the properties, the names.

July 2015. The crackdown to find “Antonio Ebangelista.” Ministers are abducted by armed men, among them Arnel Tumanan, Joel San Pedro, Jojo Nemis, Nolan Olarte, Lowell Menorca, and Bro. Isaias Samson Jr., editor of Pasugo, and his family are held under house arrest for nine days, their phones and passports seized, and he is pressured to lie to discredit Ka Tenny and Bro. Angel.

July 22 to 23, 2015. Ka Tenny Manalo, the widow of Ka Erdy, and her son Angel post a video saying their lives are in danger and asking the brethren for help. Within a day, Tenny, Angel, Marc, and Lottie are expelled from the Church. Eduardo agrees to the expulsion of his own mother. The first verse of the song is about this moment, and nothing more needs to be said.

August 2015. The Samson family files an illegal detention complaint against eight members of the Sanggunian. Instead of answering it, the administration accuses the Justice Secretary of bias, marches tens of thousands of brethren to EDSA to pressure the Department of Justice, and files libel cases against the man who spoke.

November 2015. Bro. Angel’s driver, Benjamin Arellano Jr., dies of cardiac arrest inside the sealed-off Manalo residence after, according to the family’s lawyer, being denied medical treatment while the compound was cut off from visitors. The same month, a former minister in the United States reports the Church’s finances to the IRS.

2016 to March 2017. The siege of 36 Tandang Sora. The family home is fenced off, its water and power cut, sewage allowed to flood the residence, food and water rations withheld. On March 2, 2017, police and a backhoe enter without a court order for demolition and Ka Tenny, Angel, and their household are driven out of the house Ka Erdy lived in.

2018. The Executive Minister is appointed Special Envoy for Overseas Filipino Concerns, and the Church that once treated politics as a dirty word becomes a political machine. Veteran ministers like Bro. Jesse Macaspac break their silence. Expelled ministers and members are granted protection as refugees by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. In November, CBC’s The Fifth Estate airs “Church of Secrets,” the story of a Canadian man who crossed members of the Church and ended up dead, and documents the harassment of its own journalists while they reported it.

2019 to 2026. The Church sues CBC in Canada. On February 7, 2025, the Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg throws the case out and puts the Church’s intimidation tactics on the record. In May 2026, the Court of Appeal slams the door again. By our count, 117 prosecutions, charges, petitions, and appeals have been filed by the INC and its proxies against critics since 2005, including forty-four libel cases in forty-four courts against one man. Known convictions of any critic: zero.

2025. The Executive Minister is reappointed Special Envoy. A stand-up comedian, Gold Dagal, whose jokes offended INC members, is shot dead in Manila. The Church stages a massive “non-political” rally at the Quirino Grandstand and cuts it short after two days.

2026. The Executive Minister’s Special Envoy appointment, revoked. Numerous political medling and interference by the church. Seventeen years. He is still in his illegitimate seat. His mother and brother are still expelled. Brother Angel and his companions are still in jail and his mother and others are still being hunted down. The ministers who exposed the truth are scattered across the world. And the questions asked in 2015 have never been answered.

Why these songs

We first released “One With God and Christ,” a song that takes the slogan used to demand obedience—“one with EVM”—and turns the message on its head.

The unity we believe in was never meant to be unity with a man. It is unity with the Father and His Son.

The song asks a simple question: Why pledge yourself to a man who cast out his own mother and brother when you can be one with Christ, who loved his mother, mourned his cousin, and gave his life for others?

And it carries another message many have needed to hear:

It is all right to walk away.

Leaving the synagogue behind does not mean leaving Christ behind. Christ Himself warned that His followers would face expulsion and persecution. Those who were cast out may discover they are in very good company.

But today is different.

Today marks 17 glorious years of “dynamic leadership.”

And naturally, an anniversary this extraordinary deserves its own song.

Some leaders leave a legacy.
Some leaders leave a warning.This one left us enough material for a song—maybe even a whole album.

So today, we proudly present the release of our newest song for your anniversary, “Reign of Terror.” This song captures the fear, control, and absurdity that so many have experienced under this kind of leadership. It is our musical tribute to 17 years of intimidation, hypocrisy, and unquestioned authority—and a reminder that even painful experiences can be turned into truth, courage, and song.

This is today’s special release, created for everyone who has endured the pressure, found the courage to leave, or simply recognizes the pattern. Turn up the volume, share the song, and sing along.

? REIGN OF TERROR ?
Words & Music by Defenders of Truth

Happy Anniversary Bro. Eduardo V. Manalo!

~ Antonio Ramirez Ebangelista