Evidence vs Ecleo questioned

CEBU CITY — The defense lawyer of cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr., on trial in connection with the murder of his wife, has questioned the integrity of the prosecution’s evidence in the continuation of the hearing on a motion for Ecleo’s bail.

Last Friday, lawyer Orlando Salatandre called the court’s attention to what he claimed was a discrepancy in the markings on a piece of physical evidence turned over by the police homicide section and the markings on the same evidence in the endorsement receipt obtained from the police crime laboratory which had checked it.

The evidence turned over by the police homicide section was marked "ABE 4-01-08-2002" while the markings on the crime laboratory endorsement receipt on the same evidence was "ABE 4-1-08-2002."

Salatandre said he suspects there were two sets of evidence submitted to the police crime laboratory because of the discrepancy.

PO1 Joseph Bucayan, evidence custodian at the crime laboratory, admitted the discrepancy during cross-examination.

As this developed, the prosecution said it may present a surprise witness this coming week when the hearing on Ecleo’s bail motion resumes.

Private prosecutor Arbet Yungco said she would be presenting at least three more witnesses before the prosecution winds up its case.

Ecleo, the supreme leader of the Surigao-based cult Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, stands accused of parricide in connection with the killing of his wife Alona Bacolod last year.

It took a combined force of more than 200 policemen and soldiers to arrest Ecleo at the heavily defended PBMA enclave on Dinagat Island in Surigao del Norte. About 20 of his armed followers were killed in the government assault.

At about the same time, a lone cult member massacred Bacolod’s father, mother and two siblings in Mandaue City. Not a single case has been filed a year after the massacre.

At the time she was killed, Alona was living in Cebu to pursue her senior year in medical school at the Southwestern University.

Ecleo, who was allegedly with her at the time she went missing, did not look for her but went straight home to Surigao del Norte and it was not until months later that the government finally moved in to arrest him.

Ecleo has denied having anything to do with the murder of his wife, whose body was found in a garbage bag dumped in a ravine in Dalaguete town. — Freeman News Service