10-year-old girl tags Ecleo follower as lawyer’s killer

CEBU CITY — A 10-year-old girl has tied the main suspect in last Oct. 11 killing of Cebu lawyer Arbet Sta. Ana Yongco to the time and place of her murder.

The girl, called in as a witness and escorted to the stand by her mother, pointed in open court the other day to Michel Favila, a member of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) headed by Ruben Ecleo Jr., as the man she saw go in and out of Yongco’s office on the morning she was murdered.

At the time, Yongco was the private prosecutor in the parricide case against Ecleo, the PBMA’s supreme master. Ecleo is accused of killing his wife, Alona Bacolod, in 2002.

The girl, who is entering Grade 5 this schoolyear, told the court that Favila happened to stand beside her in front of the store Yongco kept next to her office and whipped out a cellphone into which he uttered the Cebuano words "Dali mo, dali mo (Come, come)."

After making the call, the girl said Favila went to the Yongco law office, put on a mask, and knocked on the door.

Just before going in, the girl said Favila turned, "glared at me and showed me his gun."

"I could never forget his face," the girl said as she singled out Favila in the courtroom when asked by prosecution lawyer Thelma Jordan if she could identify the man she saw that morning.

Shortly after Favila went in, the girl said four gunshots rang out and she saw him emerge again, calling out to another man on a motorbike near an acacia tree. "Dali na, human na (Come, hurry, it is done )," she quoted Favila as saying.

As the other man came with the motorbike, Favila got on board, took off the mask, and the two men drove away, the girl said.

Favila’s defense lawyer, Orlando Salatandre, who is also Ecleo’s lead counsel, objected, saying the girl’s testimony was rehearsed, but Regional Trial Court Judge Bienvenido Saniel overruled him, asking the girl instead if she could identify Favila again, which she did.

Salatandre later cross-examined the girl for more than an hour, but the witness remained composed. On several occasions, the girl admonished the lawyer for "being so loud" and the court had to ask him not to go near her.

Salatandre also asked the girl to draw a sketch of the place where the killing occurred and then asked the court to cite the girl’s mother in contempt for coaching her on the name of the street.

The court rejected the demand, but took note of the objections.

The girl also told the court that she had known Yongco since she was eight because she used to attend the Saturday afternoon Bible classes which the lawyer used to conduct in her home.

Aside from Favila, three other PBMA members have been charged as accomplices in Yongco’s murder. They are Eddie Ardita, Nestor Carrol and Army M/Sgt. Heracleo Rallestan.

Asked after the hearing how he felt after the girl identified him as the alleged gunman, Favila said he was not scared. "Wa ko mahadlok ana (I’m not afraid of that)," he said. — Freeman News Service