Ecleos win illegal logging case

BUTUAN CITY — It’s not all bad news for the Ecleos.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Glenda Ecleo and her son Ruben, a former mayor and supreme master of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) who is detained in Cebu for his wife’s murder, have been cleared of illegal logging charges.

In a nine-page decision, Judge Diomedes Eviota of the Surigao City Regional Trial Court Branch 32, said the police and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources failed to present sufficient evidence against the Ecleos.

The case stemmed from the seizure by police and DENR agents of hundreds of pieces of yakal and lawaan products valued at P66,771.30 in Barangay Navarro, Basilisa, Surigao del Norte on Nov. 24, 1994.

The Ecleos were alleged to be the owners of the "hot" lumber which was to be used in making a motor launch.

Rep. Ecleo denied owning the motor launch, although she admitted that then Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angel Alcala had allowed the donation of the lumber to build the vessel for her official work.

She also denied that the man making the motor launch was her employee or a hired worker.

Eviota said there was no hard evidence that the Ecleos owned the motor launch, saying the accusations against mother and son were plain hearsay.

Rep. Ecleo is facing an electoral protest before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, while her son is awaiting trial for the killing of his wife Alona Bacolod.