Ecleo bids for time to answer bail plea

For the second time, parricide defendant Ruben Ecleo Jr. asked the Court of Appeals for another extension period to answer the Solicitor General's motion for reconsideration over the CA's ruling that upheld the Regional Trial Court's bail grant to the controversial defendant.

The Soc-Gen's office had assailed a July 7 decision of the CA upholding the RTC decision to grant bail to Ecleo, who has been charged with a non-bailable offense, on the basis of health risk.

The CA's 19th division then gave Ecleo a 15-day period to submit its comment over the SocGen petition, until October 29.

After the given period, the Ecleo side failed to comply prompting it to ask for another extension. His counsel Orlando Salatandre Jr., argued that he is "still short of material time to prepare and finalize an exhaustive and intelligible comment due to other pressing legal works of equal gravity and importance."

Ecleo, supreme master of Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, has been indicted for the killing his wife Alona on January 2002.

A public physician, who examined Ecleo while in detention at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center, claimed that Ecleo was suffering from pneumonia and was practically a "walking time bomb."

Finding that a reasonable ground, RTC judge Generosa Labra ruled that Ecleo should be granted bail for his temporary liberty.

However, Labra subsequently withdrew from handling the case and it was her replacement, Judge Anacleto Caminade, who issued the order for Ecleo's release on April 20, 2004. - Liv G. Campo