Warrant vs Ecleo to be sent to CIDG-Caraga as local group asks Ecleo to surrender

CEBU, Philippines - Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Caraga Region will have their turn in serving the warrant of arrest against Dinagat Island Rep. Ruben Ecleo, Jr.

Supt. Ritchie Posadas, chief of CIDG-Caraga, said they expect to officially receive a copy soon of the warrant of arrest against Ecleo for the parricide case against him.

It was Regional Trial Court Branch 10 Judge Soliver Peras himself who sent a message to Posadas about the warrant.

Posadas, in an interview with The FREEMAN yesterday, said that Peras sent him a text message last week about this.

Posadas expects to be given a copy of the warrant within this week.

Posadas said they received a bench warrant of arrest against Ecleo last January and that was from the Sandiganbayan. The said warrant has no expiration, though, he said.

That warrant, he said, was already served by the Dinagat Provincial Police Office some time last March but the police failed then to arrest the Dinagat Island congressman and Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association supreme master.

When asked if they spotted Ecleo in the island, Posadas said they have not seen the congressman. There were reports that Ecleo is in Dinagat the island and sometimes travel to Surigao, Manila, and even Cebu.

Meanwhile, Dionisio Chiong, husband of Thelma Chiong who is the chairperson of the Violence Against Women, is calling on Ecleo to surrender.

Speaking in behalf of his wife, Dionisio said Ecleo must submit himself to authorities to avoid another bloody fight. Violence marred the arrest of Ecleo in 2002 after his armed supporters fought the law enforcers.

Twenty-three people died during that incident.

“Unta si Ecleo mo surrender na para malikayan ang mga inosente nga tawo nga maapil,”Chong said. (He should surrender to spare the lives of innocent people.)

The members of the Criminal Investigation and Detention Group (CIDG) served the warrant of arrest in Ecleo’s house in Banawa but he was not there.

Chiong said Ecleo stays in Dinagat Island and not in Banawa. Earlier, Judge Peras issued the warrant of arrest against Ecleo after he failed to attend three consecutive hearings of his parricide case.

Peras cancelled his P1 million-bail, which he was allowed to post after his doctor claimed that he has a heart ailment. —