Regional Trial Court judge Geraldine Faith Econg is expected to decide this afternoon whether she will grant the petition of the prosecution for her to inhibit from handling the parricide case filed against cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr.
Private prosecutors Fritz Quiñanola, Democrito Barcenas, Alfredo Sipalay, Kit Enriquez and the families of Ecleo’s wife Alona Bacolod filed a petition for Econg to inhibit from handling the case believing that the judge is no longer impartial to the case.
The Ecleo parricide case has been dragging on for years already, with documents and transcripts already reading to about four feet thick, as shown by a staff at the RTC branch 9.
“Kun mo-inhibit si Judge Econg sa pagpadayon paghusay sa kaso, unya ma-raffle ni og laing huwes, malagmit nga ang huwes mo-inhibit lang gihapon kay pwerteng bagaa na sa mga dukomento nga kinahanglan niyang basahon,” a court personnel said.
In their 20-pages petition, the private prosecutors said the judge is already biased citing several rulings issued by Judge Econg in the past hearings, which they claimed, favored the defense.
Before the case was raffled to Econg’s court branch, the case was handled by at least five other judges, among them judges Galicano Arriesgado and Generosa Labra. It was Labra who granted Ecleo’s request for bail citing health reasons.
The prosecution said Econg until now still failed to resolve their motion to cancel the bail bond granted to Ecleo and to send him back to jail after the cult leader has already regained his health.
Ecleo was implicated in the murder of his wife whose mutilated body was found inside a black plastic garbage bag after it was dumped in a remote place in barangay Coro, Dalaguete on January 8, 2002. — Rene U. Borromeo/QSB