Prosecution wants judge to cancel Ecleo's bail

CEBU, Philippines -  The prosecution panel in the parricide case against Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association cult supreme master Ruben Ecleo Jr. has asked the new judge assigned to the case to rule on their three-year-old motion seeking the cancellation of the bail bond and the return of the accused to the Cebu City Jail.

 Lead private prosecutor Fritz Quiñanola filed the motion last Friday before Regional Trial Court Branch 10 judge Soliver Peras.

 In its three-page motion, Quiñanola said that the “delay of three years in resolving the issue confronts the efficacy of the wheels of justice in our jurisdiction. Its early resolution is thus compelling.”

 Peras, in a dialogue earlier with the prosecution and the defense panels, promised to dispose of all the pending incidents that were not acted on by the previous judges handling the seven-year-old parricide case because of their inhibitions.

 Peras is scheduled to hear the case on September 23. Quiñanola, however, scheduled his motion to be heard on September 18 at 2 p.m.

 Peras is the seventh judge assigned to handle the controversial case because the previous judges were asked to inhibit either by the defense or the prosecution because of alleged biases.

 The other judges who handled the Ecleo case before Peras were Galicano Arriesgado, who issued the original warrant for Ecleo’s arrest; Olegario Sarmiento, who denied the motion to quash it; Generosa Labra, who granted him bail; Anacleto Caminade, who signed the release order; and Ireneo Gako Jr., who was the first to begin hearing the case with Ecleo out of jail and Geraldine Faith Econg. Econg decided to inhibit upon the motion of the prosecution for alleged biases.

 Quiñanola said the prosecution filed their formal offer of exhibits and motion to cancel Ecleo’s bail on July 31, 2006 yet. However, the motion has not yet been resolved until now.

 The prosecution moved for the cancellation of the P1-million bail granted to Ecleo based on the testimony of Dr. Generoso Matiga in 2006 that bringing the accused back to jail will not endanger his life.

 This was contrary to an earlier medical findings that described Ecleo as a “walking time bomb that may drop dead anytime”. The said findings were also made as basis of Labra’s granting Ecleo bail in March 1, 2004.

 Ecleo is accused of killing his wife, Alona Bacolod, more than seven years ago. He body was found in a black garbage bag thrown down a cliff in barangay Coro, Dalaguete town in 2001. —Fred P. Languido/BRP   (THE FREEMAN)