CEBU, Philippines - The prosecution team in the Ecleo parricide case has expressed their disappointment in the PNP for their failure to arrest former Dinagat representative Ruben Ecleo Jr.
Ecleo is now wanted after he was convicted of parricide for killing his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo in 2002. Judge Soliver Peras of Regional Trial Court Branch 10 found sufficient evidence to find him guilty.
Alona’s body was found in Dalaguete town, Cebu, last Jan. 8, 2002, three days after she disappeared from their home in Sitio Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City.
However, a year after the case was promulgated on Apr. 13, 2012 Ecleo is still free, whereabouts unknown.
Ecleo, who is also the Supreme Master for the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association cult, was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.
Aside from imprisonment, the court also ordered him to pay over P27 million damages to Alona’s family. It ordered Ecleo to pay P200,000 in exemplary damages; P200,000 in moral damages; P200,000 in attorney’s fees; and P50,000 in temperate damages aside from the P25.650 million in compensatory damages.
“I want to express our extreme disappointment at the PNP’s inutility in effecting Ecleo’s arrest,†said Kit Enriquez, one of the private prosecutors.
Another private prosecutor Democrito Barcenas is calling on the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to mobilize its resources to arrest Ecleo.
“We are appealing to the DOJ to mobilize its entire resources, the National Bureau of Investigation and the DILG to mobilize the PNP to arrest Ecleo,†he said.
Ecleo’s camp has filed an appeal before the Court of Appeals Cebu Station but Peras has denied the motion filed by Ecleo to transmit the entire case records to the CA and to voluntarily inhibit from the case for lack of merit.
Peras, in his 25-page order, said the failure of Ecleo to surrender within the required 15-day period after the promulgation of the case was the basis of the denial.(FREEMAN)