ECLEO CASE: Witness: I'm not turning back on Alona's family

Despite his firm belief that it was not Alona Bacolod Ecleo's body that was found in Dalaguete town five years ago, defense witness Jose Dayaganon Sr. yesterday said he never turned his back on Alona's family.

In his fourth time on the witness stand, Dayaganon said he never turned his back on the grieving Bacolod family after a body of a woman, said to be that of Alona, was found down a deep ravine in Dalaguete in January 2002.

"Giunungan jud nako iyang ginikanan," Dayaganon stressed, saying he had stayed with the family for three days from January 10 to 12, 2002 during the wake at the St. Francis Funeral Homes.

Both Dayaganon and the Bacolod family were members of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, which is headed by Alona's husband, Ruben Ecleo Jr., the prime suspect in her death.

Dayaganon, who continues to be an active leader of PBMA, said he was close to Alona's father, Elpidio, when he was still alive. In fact, it was his personal knowledge of Alona that made him firmly believe it was not her body that was found that fateful day. Alona was last seen alive on January 5, 2002, four days before the body was found in Dalaguete.

But Dayaganon said he no longer attended the burial, as he had to go home to Argao town.

During the previous hearing, Dayaganon lost his cool and even raised his voice when being prodded by the prosecution on the details of the cadaver that he saw in Dalaguete.

His voice started to rise when private prosecutor Alfredo Sipalay made him describe the similarity of the facial features of Alona's siblings whom he said he personally knew before Alona's death.

The questions pertaining to the similarity in the physical features of the Bacolod siblings took quite sometime to finish that the court had to make both the prosecution and defense agree that those identified by Dayaganon were indeed siblings.

Yesterday, the prosecution again made Dayaganon describe the cadaver, even made him demonstrate on the witness stand the placement of the tongue and the details of the eyes.

In his first testimony, Dayaganon said he immediately went to Dalaguete upon hearing that Alona was found dead in the town. Upon seeing the dead body, it was then that he concluded that it was not that of Alona, telling the court that he has met Alona many times for him to conclude that the dead body was not hers.

In fact, he said he still saw her on January 5, 2001 when he went to Ecleo's house in Banawa, Cebu City to report his group's accomplishments to Ecleo. That same day, he also reportedly saw Alona ride on a vehicle with her brother Ben Bacolod, presumably to go to a party.

Ben, Elpidio and his wife, Rosalia, were killed when a man opened fire at their house in Mandaue City several months after the dead body was found.

Ben was said to be the only witness to Alona's murder. The killing came amid the mounting violence in the Ecleo enclave of Dinagat Island when authorities tried to serve a warrant for his arrest. - Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM