Court junks petition to cancel high-profile fugitive's passport
June 12, 2013 | 4:24pm
MANILA, Philippines - The Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has denied the request of the Philipine National Police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 to cancel the passport of former congressman Ruben Ecleo Jr, one of the five most wanted fugitives in the country.
In his four-page order, Judge Soliver Peras, presiding judge of the RTC Branch 10, dismissed the request of the CIDG 7 for being premature and for lacking factual and legal basis.
Peras said the court cannot see any reason why Ecleo’s passport has to be cancelled as the CIDG 7 did not cite any valid ground.
He added that Ecleo’s conviction cannot be made basis to cancel the former lawmaker’s passport.
Peras was the same judge who found Ecleo guilty of parricide for the death of his wife, Alona Bacolod-Ecleo, in their house in Barangay Banawa, Cebu City in 2002.
In the verdict promulgated on April 13, 2012, Ecleo, a former Dinagat Island representative, was sentenced to reclusion perpetua or 20 to 40 years in prison.
Ecleo was also ordered to pay his wife’s heirs P25.6 million in damages and attorney’s fees.
Earlier this year, Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas raised the individual bounty to P2 million for the so-called "Big 5" fugitives in the country, which includes Ecleo.
The other fugitives are General Jovito Palparan, Palawan Governor Joel Reyes, his brother Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, and Globe Asiatique developer Delfin Lee.
Palparan is facing a case for kidnapping and serious illegal detention for the disappearance of student-activists Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan. He is also tagged in alleged human rights abuses while he was with the military.
The Reyes brothers are suspects in the murder of Palawan-based environmentalist and broadcaster Gerardo "Gerry" Ortega.
Lee has a standing warrant of arrest for syndicated estafa in connection with Globe Asiatique’s Xevera housing projects in Bacolor and Mabalacat towns in Pampanga.
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