Ecleo shares new cell with ex-cop

CEBU CITY — Cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. is back in jail and now shares a cell with another controversial figure, former policeman Engelberto Durano.

Both murder suspects almost immediately hit it off well. Reporters spotted them sitting on the bare concrete floor, playing cards.

Asked how he took his new cell, Ecleo just smiled and nodded.

Ecleo was recommitted to the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center here Tuesday after two days of confinement at the Cebu City Medical Center where doctors found nothing wrong with him, except for a minor bout of pneumonia.

He was rushed to the hospital Sunday after complaining of chest pains before he was to be moved to a common cell with other inmates.

Last Friday, reporters found him with a woman inside his isolation cell, sparking an outcry and resulting in the relief of three jail officers.

Ecleo, 42, supreme leader of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, is awaiting trial for the murder of his wife Alona Bacolod. — Freeman News Service