ECLEO PARRICIDE CASE: Court orders prosecutors to present all evidence

Saying it now wants to hear the side of the accused, the court yesterday ordered the private prosecutors of the parricide case against former mayor and cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. to present all their evidence not later than December 16.

Regional Trial Court judge Geraldine "Faith" Econg said she could not afford the case to drag for another year because the accused also has the right for a speedy trial. Ecleo's wife was killed in January 2001.

"I do not care what you will say," Econg told private prosecutors Fritz V. Quiñanola and Alfredo Sipalay after they failed to present yesterday Dr. Maria Corazon de Ungria, head of the University of the Philippines' DNA analysis laboratory.

Defense lawyer Orlando Salatandre said the prosecution panel was not serious in its intention to present the UP doctor in court because it failed to exert efforts to provide her with traveling expenses.

In her September 26, de Ungria informed private prosecutor Kit Enriquez that UP does not provide funds for any court appearances of its personnel, hence all travel and other expenses should be shouldered by the requesting party.

Through a motion of the private prosecutors, Econg summoned de Ungria to testify before the court whether there is still a need to compel Ecleo's 12-year-old son to submit himself to a DNA sampling.

On March 7, personnel from the UP Natural Science Research Institute, together with their counterparts from the National Bureau of Investigation and Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory Service, conducted a DNA sampling on the body of a woman, alleged to be Ecleo's wife's Alona, found dumped in barangay Coro, Dalaguete town.

But in her letter to Enriquez, de Ungria said her findings are still not complete because "we have only partial DNA results of the remains because of the state of the samples submitted for analysis."

To make the findings complete, de Ungria wished to collect additional samples from the right femur, which is now under the custody of the NBI, of the questioned cadaver. Femur is the biggest bone in the leg, which potentially contains a good amount of bone marrow.

Econg said she is surprised about why only now the UP forensic experts had informed that their samples are not enough to complete their findings.

But even if the samples from the right femur of the cadaver is already available, de Ungria said the private prosecutors of the case must first settle the payment for the past and the future tests.

The court ordered the private prosecutors to present de Ungria's complete findings 30 days from yesterday or to bring the doctor to testify before the court on November 10 or 11.

Econg said after the December 16 hearing of the case, she would order the private prosecutors to submit their evidence so the defense could submit their comments and start presenting their side. - Rene U. Borromeo