Econg junks Ecleo request not to attend trial tomorrow

Regional Trial Court Judge Geraldine Faith Econg rejected the request of cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. for permission not to attend the hearing of his parricide case tomorrow.

Econg's staff said an aide of Ecleo called up the court to ask whether he could be allowed not to attend the hearing tomorrow but the judge turned down the request of the former mayor of San Jose, Surigao del Norte.

One of the issues to be discussed during the hearing of the case is the move of Ecleo's lawyers for Econg to inhibit from the case on suspicion that she might be biased after learning that the judge used to be a classmate of the slain Arbet Sta. Ana Yongco, the lead private prosecutor of the case.

It is expected that the defense lawyers, Orlando Salatandre and Giovanni Mata, would exchange heated arguments during the court proceedings with the private prosecutors from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu City chapter.

Salatandre earlier claimed that by merely reading the records of Ecleo's case, Econg would "inescapably remember her dear friend and classmate, because Filipino's sympathy is one trait which perpetually reigns supreme over any and all considerations."

It was Econg who announced that Yongco was her former classmate when Salatandre and private prosecutor Fritz V. Quiñanola engaged in a heated argument and dragged the issue about the killing of Yongco during the hearing of the Ecleo case on July 13.

The two opposing lawyers were arguing on who were to be blamed for the delay in the proceedings of the case. Quiñanola then said: "Kon wala pa bitaw ninyo patya si Attorney Yongco, dugay ra unta nga nahuman ning kasoha."

Yongco was killed inside her office along Sikatuna Street corner Alcohol Street on October 11, 2004. Three members of Ecleo's Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association - Michel Favila, Army M/Sgt. Heracleo Rallestan and Nestor Carrol - are now facing murder charges in connection with her murder.

Salatandre said: "Upon careful analysis of the foregoing admission by the honorable judge, it is discernible that she will be in conflict professionally if the issue of the death of the late private prosecutor is being dragged in the instant case."

But Quiñanola described the latest move of Salatandre as another way to delay the trial of the case, particularly on the prosecution's effort to cancel Ecleo's bail, which was granted by another court, and send him back to jail.

Although Ecleo was charged with a heinous crime for the killing of his wife Alona in 2002, he was granted bail after his doctor described him as a "walking time bomb" that could die at any time due to his heart ailment. - Rene U. Borromeo