Ecleo Parricide case: Court readmits two pieces of evidence

The prosecutors of the parricide case filed against cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. have successfully convinced Regional Trial Court judge Geraldine Faith Econg to readmit as evidence two of their vital exhibits that were earlier rejected by the court due to wrong descriptions.

The exhibits readmitted by the court are the bloodied black garbage bag that contained a woman's body when it was found in barangay Coro, Dalaguete town, last January 8, 2002 and the five pieces of similar garbage bags later recovered from Ecleo's house in barangay Banawa, Cebu City.

Econg earlier rejected the bloodied black garbage bag when it was presented as the prosecution's evidence because the private prosecutors erroneously labeled it as Exhibit QQ and claimed that it was the one recovered in Dalaguete.

The court records showed that Exhibit QQ refers to the five pieces of black garbage bags that were recovered from the house of Ecleo, while the bloodied black garbage bag that was recovered in Dalaguete was originally marked as Exhibit XX.

These two exhibits are considered to be very vital to the prosecution because they want to establish that the bloodied black garbage bag that was found in Dalaguete came from Ecleo's house and the body was that of his wife, Alona Bacolod.

Econg said while the prosecution has changed their purpose of the offer of these two exhibits when they filed a motion for reconsideration, she believes that the prosecution has not lost its right to amend its purpose of the offer of the exhibits.

"It is to be remembered that even now, prosecution has not yet rested its case. Therefore, it is still their turn to present evidence to convince the court of its theory as well as to establish the facts and law to support it," the court ruled.

But while the court ruled to readmit these two exhibits, Econg rejected the prosecutions' motion to reconsider its earlier ruling excluding in evidence some other exhibits.

Of the 36 exhibits of the prosecution that were rejected by the court, the private prosecutors only asked the court to reconsider nine which they considered to be very vital to the case.

But Econg still rejected the exhibits of photographs and death certificates of the slain families of the Bacolods who were massacred by a lone gunman in their house in barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City, on June 18, 2002.

The assailant stormed the house of the Bacolod's while government troops started raiding Ecleo's mansion in San Jose town, Dinagat Island, Surigao del Norte to arrest the cult leader.

Police believed that the gunman, who was armed with a machine pistol, was a member of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association -a huge cult headed by Ecleo- because a PBMA ring was recovered from his body when he was killed in a shootout.

Econg said the death of the Bacolods has no bearing on the case at hand at all.

Ecleo's lawyers also submitted a motion for partial reconsideration asking the court to reject those other exhibits that were already admitted as evidence, but Econg denied the motion.

"After revisiting the court's ruling on the above-mentioned exhibits, this court is convinced that its admission of the same is proper," Econg ruled. - Rene U. Borromeo