CEBU, Philippines - Who is Leonardo Jastiva, Sr.?
He is the national president of the International Missionary Society of Seventh Day Adventist Church Reform Movement, which he claims has about 1,500 members nationwide with of 50 them in Cebu.
A native of Dipolog City, he was assigned in Cebu as leader of the group in 1996.
Jastiva’s group left the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1951. The SDA Church was established in 1844.
His group reportedly elected him as the regional director for the whole of Asia and the president of the movement in New Zealand during their international conference held in that country on March 24, 2008.
He has instructions from their movement to move to New Zealand, but wasn’t able to leave due to problems with his papers of his family, specifically his eldest child, who is already married.
Jastiva had gone to Sri Lanka and Malaysia for missions and has recruited members to their fold in Masbate and Bacolod City. — Niña Chrismae G. Sumacot/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)