Evidence in Ecleo parricide case gone

Several pieces of documentary evidence that may help the lawyers handling the prosecution of the parricide case filed against Ruben Ecleo Jr. are missing from the two-foot-thick pile of court documents.

It may be difficult to determine who is or who are responsible for the losses as four Regional Trial Court judges have handled the case already.

It was judge Generosa Labra who first handled the case, then judge Anacleto Caminade, followed by judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr. before the case was raffled to judge Geraldine Econg.

Democrito Barcenas, one of the private prosecutors of the case, discovered that some of the documents were missing when they tried to submit all their evidence to the court.

Among the documents missing are the death certificate of Alona Bacolod-Ecleo and the copy of the police blotter of the Homicide Section that reported Alona as missing.

The prosecution panel has already submitted to the court their list of documentary exhibits, but noted that many of the documents, which were previously attached to the case dockets, can no longer be found.

The employees of RTC Branch 9 presided by Econg denied any responsibility for the missing documents saying that when the dockets of the case were transferred from one court to another, there was no proper inventory of the documents.

City prosecutor Nicolas Sellon said he only learned of this when reporters told him yesterday, but he said the case against Ecleo is still tight.

"Lig-on gihapon kaayo ang atong ebidensya pinaagi sa testimonies ni Josebil Bacolod ug sa ubang witness nga miila g'yod sa patay'ng lawas nga mao si Alona," Sellon said.

But Sellon said he submitted some of the evidence to Arbet Sta. Ana Yongco before she was murdered inside her law firm along Sikatuna Street last October 11, 2004.

Yongco was then the head private prosecutor of the case. Sellon said the day after she was killed he sent a letter to her husband Felimon demanding for the evidence related to the case, but he never returned them. - Rene U. Borromeo