Michelle Loubon

Who is Ju­liana Pe­na?

She re­mains elu­sive and mys­te­ri­ous to the pop­u­la­tion and has been la­belled Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning's prophet­ess.

She was once a mem­ber of the Je­sus the Light of This World Min­istries on Ceme­tery Street, Heights of Gua­napo, Ari­ma. Evan­ge­list Shirlan Fer­min said there was a rift and Pe­na left, tak­ing some mem­bers of the flock with her. Fer­min said: "She adios out of town." Pe­na's name is now linked to the con­tentious church, named Light­house Min­istries of Christ.

Pe­na's an Arim­i­an

But there are oth­er facts on Pe­na – she is an Arim­i­an, her fam­i­ly are the Pereiras and her child­hood home is at Ari­ma Old Road, Ari­ma. It is lo­cat­ed a stone's throw from the Di­al and on the way to the Ari­ma Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive School. On Thurs­day, clad in a flo­ral duster, Pe­na's moth­er didn't say much on her daugh­ter's where­abouts. Her moth­er, known as "Ms Pereira," is be­lieved to be in her 80s. Her moth­er said: "She (Pe­na) is a big woman and what­ev­er she does is her busi­ness." She didn't say whether Pe­na was in the coun­try or not. Push­ing aside the cur­tains, a woman said she was Pe­na's sis­ter-in-law and, she, too, doesn't know her where­abouts.

She (the sis­ter-in-law) did not give her name but said she just lived there with her hus­band (Pe­na's broth­er) and her chil­dren and moth­er-in-law. "I don' know much about her...Just what we are read­ing in the pa­pers," she said. She ad­mit­ted that Pe­na kept in con­tact with her moth­er. She said Pe­na would would call on the tele­phone and say, "Can I speak to mum­my?" "I would pass the tele­phone to her," she said. But she did say "the church at Gua­napo is hers." (Pe­na). Pe­na's fa­ther, known as "Mr Shobee the butch­er," died in April 2009.

Spot­ted at the end of Jan­u­ary

An Arim­i­an res­i­dent said Pe­na was spot­ted about "two to three weeks ago" when she vis­it­ed her moth­er. Pe­na was de­scribed as a per­son of mixed de­scent, about 60-some­thing and some­one who still looks good, by a male res­i­dent. She is al­so the moth­er of three and her daugh­ter lives in Boston. Oth­er neigh­bours said they re­mem­bered her when around 16, as "a small, slim girl with long hair." "She left and went away...I did not see her for years af­ter," said a neigh­bour. An­oth­er neigh­bour said when they first heard the news, they didn't know Pe­na was the girl next door.

"We kept hear­ing Ju­liana Pe­na...we did not know that name. She is a Pereira. I was shocked to be hear­ing about her links with the Prime Min­is­ter," she said. But when­ev­er any­one in­quired about her, her moth­er al­ways said "she good." An­oth­er res­i­dent said Pe­na was al­ways "spir­i­tu­al." "From her youth she would al­ways be go­ing to church and pray­ing for peo­ple...She was al­ways spir­i­tu­al," the man said.

"Ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­ers"

Evan­ge­list Shirlain Fer­min said Pe­na pos­sess­es "ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­ers." Fer­min said: "She is very unique. She is ex­tra­or­di­nary. She doesn't speak like us. She is very ed­u­cat­ed. She knows how to car­ry about her­self. She can car­ry on a con­ver­sa­tion with any­one. She can speak well. She is very pleas­ant." Fer­min re­lat­ed a sto­ry in which her sis­ter Yuk­lan was cured by Pe­na. She said: "She dis­cov­ered lumps on her breast. Pe­na prayed for her and she was cured. Pe­na is ex­tra­or­di­nary," said Fer­min. Be­fore Pe­na and her rep­u­ta­tion for hav­ing the ear of Man­ning, Fer­min said the Lord raised her up. She said: "At one time, she was liv­ing in her car in the US. The Lord raised her up. She cried out to him."

Fer­min said Pe­na start­ed get­ting prophe­cy and took it to Man­ning. "The Lord used her to car­ry mes­sages to him. He sent her to him to guide so she could hear God's voice." On the is­sue of the con­tro­ver­sial church, Fer­min said: "The Rev­erend (Pe­na) had the plans be­fore. There were plans for the veg­etable gar­dens and a house for the pas­tor on the premis­es. "All that hap­pened is we were in a house and we had plans to build the church over there," she said. "The Lord gave us the vi­sion. The mid­dle of the build­ing is glass. That is for the light of the Lord to come in." On the flip side, Fer­min said Man­ning was cho­sen to lead T&T.

She al­so said when Pe­na was in Africa, she re­mem­bered the con­gre­ga­tion. "Be­cause of her close­ness to Man­ning, we got ham­pers for Christ­mas...I got a ham­per," said Fer­min. She al­so said Pe­na had "got­ten ar­ro­gant and that led to her down­fall." There was a quar­rel be­tween the prophet­ess Cindy Blanc and Pe­na. Fer­min said she had to in­ter­vene to quell the con­tro­ver­sy by pray­ing with her niece Blanc. Fer­min said Pe­na still vis­its her big broth­er in Va­len­cia. "She is very close to my sis­ter-in-law. She hangs out with my broth­er and his wife," she said.

Re­li­gious lead­ers com­ment

In his pop­u­lar ca­lyp­so, In A Palace State of Mind, ca­lyp­son­ian Win­ston Scar­bor­ough en­quired: "Man­ning did you get rid of the obeah woman?" Some re­li­gious lead­ers have claimed that di­vine rev­e­la­tion told them Man­ning should get rid of her. But he hasn't. There are lead­ers who said they can con­firm her link­ages with Man­ning. One leader, who asked not to be iden­ti­fied, said: "Pe­na sat on the plat­form at a re­li­gious con­ven­tion (2006) in which Niger­ian Pas­tor Daniel Ekechuk­wu was the spe­cial guest.

"She (Pe­na) was on the plat­form (Wood­ford Square) by spe­cial re­quest from the Prime Min­is­ter that his friend get a seat. She was rep­re­sent­ing the Prime Min­is­ter." Af­ter the con­ven­tion, she even vis­it­ed South Africa. The leader al­so said: "One pas­tor even had a word for Man­ning, that there was a la­dy close to him, and he has to be care­ful."