Report: Ruben Ecleo running for Congress

CEBU, Philippines - The prosecutors in the parricide case against the supreme master of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association believes they now have a very strong argument to have the P1 million bail granted to Ruben Ecleo Jr. cancelled so he would be sent back to jail.

Private prosecutor Fritz Quiñanola said if the report is true that Ecleo is running for congressman in Surigao del Norte in the next elections, he should be stopped from further using his health condition to continue availing himself of the privilege granted to him by the court for humanitarian consideration.

“If it is true then he is admitting that he is not dangerously sick,” Quiñanola said.

Quiñanola believes that this matter will strengthen their position to have Ecleo’s bail cancelled.

When asked by The FREEMAN for confirmation, Ecleo’s lawyer, Orlando Salatandre, said he has no personal knowledge about the cult leader’s running for a congressional seat in Surigao del Norte although he heard reports about it.

A high-placed source however told The FREEMAN that Ecleo filed his certificate of candidacy for congressman in Surigao del Norte.

The prosecution panel had been seeking for the cancellation of the bail granted to Ecleo more than a year ago. But its motion was left unacted upon because of the inhibition of the judges previously handling the case.

The prosecution also believes that Ecleo has already recovered from his illness after a considerable period of treatment by a well-known medical expert who had also attended to former President Joseph Estrada.

It claimed that it has proof that Ecleo is no longer sick as he claimed to be when Judge Generosa Labra granted him bail.

According to Quiñanola, Ecleo was seen already attending social gatherings and was even caught on television attending last year’s State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The prosecution’s motion is still pending before Judge Soliver Peras, the new judge assigned to hear the eight-year-old case.

Peras has rescheduled the hearing on the case for January 20, 2010 after he reconsidered his earlier decision to inhibit from the case because of media criticisms.

The Ecleo trial was suspended for more than a year after the inhibition of Judge Geraldine Faith Econg. — Fred P. Languido/LPM (THE FREEMAN)