In a nine-page decision, Regional Trial Court Judge Diomedes Eviota said there was insufficient evidence to pin down Surigao del Norte Rep. Glenda Ecleo (first district) and her son Ruben Jr., former mayor of San Jose town and supreme leader of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, on the illegal logging case.
Ruben Jr. is behind bars in Cebu City as principal suspect in last year’s killing of his wife, Alona Bacolod.
Police and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources filed the charges against the Ecleos after their operatives confiscated yakal and lawaan lumber worth P66,771.30 supposedly being used to make a motor launch for the Ecleos.
The forest products, seized in Barangay Navarro, Basilisa, Surigao del Norte, were allegedly illegally acquired. The man making the motor launch claimed that the Ecleos had hired him to do the job.
Rep. Ecleo denied the charges, saying that then Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angel Alcala allowed the donation of the lumber for the construction of the motor launch which she was to use in her official duties.
She also belied the man’s claim that she had contracted him to build the vessel.
Eviota said there was no hard evidence to convict the Ecleos, adding that the accusations against them were plain hearsay.