Devinadera remains detained, sans release order

Almost two months since the Court of Appeals ruled as null and void the lower court's conviction of the man who confessed abetting the killing of Alona Bacolod Ecleo close to four years ago, Cedrick Devinadera is still in jail but queerly with nary a complaint from him.

Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center acting warden Alfredo Abella said his office has not received any release order from the court yet so Devinadera has to stay in jail until now.

Abella said they are still waiting for the court order but Devinadera, so far, has not filed any complaint against his continued detention.

The CA, in a ruling promulgated last October, dismissed Devinadera's earlier conviction by then Regional Trial Court-Barili judge Ildefonso Suerte, calling it a "sham and a travesty of justice." The dismissal would have freed Devinadera already but there has been no release order yet.

Alona was killed on January 5, 2002 and her husband Ruben Ecleo, leader of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, has been accused as the prime suspect under a parricide case handled by another court.

But Devinadera, also a PBMA member, turned up in December 2003 owning up to helping in the killing of Alona and pointing instead at Ben, the victim's brother, as the alleged killer.

But Ben was among the four Bacolods killed in their house in Mandaue City allegedly by a lone PBMA member in June 2002, about five months after Alona was killed.

Based on Devinadera's confession, then Regional Trial Court-Barili Judge Ildefonso Suerte convicted Devinadera in May 2004 as an accomplice to the crime of homicide, and meted him four years and two months to eight years in jail.

The conviction drew flak from the prosecutors in the Ecleo parricide case, saying Devinadera was only a "fall guy" set up to clear Ecleo from liability.

The matter reached the Supreme Court, which in turn dismissed Suerte from service and replaced him with Judge Leopoldo Cañete.

Cañete subsequently ruled the conviction null and void, a ruling elevated later to the CA but where Associate Justice Isaias Dicdican eventually upheld. - Fred P. Languido