Lawyers told to stop linking Yongco slay to Ecleo case

The Regional Trial Court had advised both prosecution and defense lawyers in the parricide case against Ruben Ecleo Jr. to stop linking the case to that of the killing of lawyer Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco.

RTC Judge Geraldine Faith Econg said she may be forced to quit handling the Ecleo case if the opposing lawyers continue to drag the Yongco murder case to the parricide case against Ecleo.

Econg was obviously not happy about the Yongco case getting into the trial of the Ecleo case, and she told the two lawyers that the slain lawyer was her former classmate.

Private prosecutor Fritz Quiñanola and defense counsel Orlando Salatandre eventually agreed to stop discussing the Yongco case during the course of the Ecleo trial.

The Yongco slay case cropped up after Salatandre moved to cancel the scheduled hearing of the Ecleo case on July 27 because the date is the death anniversary of his father.

Quiñanola objected to the motion but Salatandre got angry and called Quiñanola "very arrogant". Salatandre said the prosecutor was unfair because court records showed that the prosecution had caused part of the delays in the trial.

This prompted Quiñanola to say: "Wala pa bitaw to ninyo patya si Atty. Yongco, human na unta ning kasoha."

Quiñanola blamed the Ecleo camp behind the delay of the trial, and pointed to three members of Ecleo's Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association cult as the allegedly killers of Yongco in her office last October 11, 2002.

The PBMA members, Michel Favila, M/Sgt. Heracleo Rallestan and Nestor Carrol have been indicted and are now facing trial.

Yongco was the lead private prosecutor in the case against Ecleo, and her being so had been alluded to as the reason why she was murdered.

What followed were the trading of arguments between the two lawyers until Econg stopped them with her warnings to stop dragging the Yongco case into the trial. - Rene U. Borromeo