Attack on Ecleo Wife’s Family: After a year, still no case on Cebu slays

CEBU CITY — It is exactly a year ago that four members of the family of the slain Alona Bacolod were themselves massacred, an attack that also killed a neighbor who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But not a single case has been filed in court against anyone.

The lone attacker of Alona’s father, mother, brother and sister, himself subsequently killed when he tried to fight it out with pursuing policemen in Subangdaku, Mandaue City on the night of June 18, 2002, was a member of the Surigao-based religious cult Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA).

The head of the cult, regarded as its supreme leader, is Ruben Ecleo Jr., the husband of Alona and main suspect in her killing. Ecleo is now in jail at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center here while being tried in connection with her murder.

Most PBMA members are fanatical and would be willing to give up their lives for Ecleo, as when about 20 of them were slain trying to battle a large force of police and soldiers deployed to capture Ecleo from his enclave on Dinagat Island in Surigao del Norte, the very same day of the Bacolod family massacre.

Rico Gomolon attacked the Bacolod family armed to the hilt. He had with him an Ingram machine pistol and a spare caliber .45 pistol.

Surviving Bacolods

The surviving members of the Bacolod family — three brothers and a sister — see Ecleo as the mastermind in the attack but Ecleo has denied this.

It is not clear if the police ever proceeded on the case after the death of Gomolon. What is clear is that there is no evidence whatsoever in the hands of the police to merit a case. The case is as dead as the Bacolods and Gomolon who killed them.

Of the four slain Bacolods, perhaps the most important had been Ben, then 36, who as elder brother of Alona had been living with her and was a key witness in the parricide case his family filed against Ecleo.

While Ecleo and Alona were mainly residents of San Jose in Dinagat Island, Alona was at the time living in Cebu while pursuing her studies. She was then in her senior year as a medical student at the Southwestern University and living in a house the Ecleos owned in Banawa.

Alona’s body was found in a black garbage bag dumped in a ravine in Dalaguete in January last year, several days after she went missing. Ecleo did not look for her but immediately left for Surigao, there to remain free until the police and the military, under intense public pressure, were forced to storm his enclave.

Killed in the attack along with Ben were his father Elpidio, 65, mother Rosalia, 58, and sister Evelyn, 32. Also killed was a neighbor, Yoyo Laktawan, who happened to be fetching water from the Bacolod home when the attacker opened fire.

Disappointment

Josebil Bacolod, 22, a surviving sibling of Alona, said he feels a great sense of disappointment that until now, a year later, no case has ever been filed in court in connection with the massacre.

Josebil, like Ben, is a key witness against Ecleo in his sister’s murder. The case against Ecleo was filed based on his and Ben’s testimonies, in which they claimed Ecleo and Alona had a fight the night she went missing and that they saw a garbage bag being loaded into the family car afterwards.

Thelma Chiong, national vice president of anti-crime watchdog Crusade Against Violence, is similarly disappointed by the failure of the police to solve the Bacolods’ massacre.

"We are not satisfied with the performance of the police, as well as the CIDG," Chiong said, referring to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Ironically, CIDG chief Edwin Diocos believes Gomolon was not alone in planning the massacre, that he is "morally convinced" Ecleo had something to do with the killing. He said he regrets not having any evidence from which to proceed in filing a case in court.

Diocos cried foul over Chiong’s statement that she is not satisfied with the police effort to solve the case.

Diocos insisted that the police and the CIDG are "doing everything," but only as far as helping the surviving Bacolods cope with personal expenses, not on the case itself. The Bacolods have been under CIDG protection since last year.

"There is nothing we can do. Who will we sue? We have no witnesses," he said.

He said he could not file a case solely on the basis of the testimony of the surviving Bacolods because he has no one to corroborate their statements.

He said there is simply no one willing to link Ecleo to the attack. — Freeman News Service