Looking for fugitive Ruben Ecleo Jr.?
Find him in Dinagat Island, Surigao del Norte, his home and the stronghold of his religious cult, said Angelito Bacolod, a day after a Cebu judge convicted the congressman of parricide for killing Ecleo’s wife Alona ten years ago.
“Safe si Ecleo didto. Walay motudlo niya didto (Ecleo is safe in Dinagat. No one would betray him there),” said Angelito Bacolod, brother of the victim.
The Bacolod family used to be loyal members of Ecleo’s Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) until Alona was killed in 2002.
Angelito said offering a reward may help but added that his family, which already lost their parents and two siblings in a shooting attack by a PBMA member in Mandaue City after Alona’s murder, has no funds for a bounty.
Philippine National Police chief Nicanor Bartolome said he has ordered a nationwide manhunt for Ecleo, congressman of the lone district of Dinagat.
Bartolome told reporters in Cebu yesterday that the police in Central Visayas and the Caraga region should not be the only ones involved in arresting Ecleo but every policeman in the country.
“We have the mandate to arrest Ecleo. Our police will do exactly that,” he said.
In hindsight, police know that any attempt to flush out Ecleo from his home base would be a high-risk operation.
In June 18, 2002, with an arrest warrant issued for Alona’s death, Ecleo surrendered only after a bloody gun battle between police enforcers serving the warrant and his followers in Dinagat Island.
About 2,000 PBMA members barricaded Ecleo’s hilltop mansion. A policeman and 16 cult members were killed in the three-hour siege. The religious cult, which reveres Ecleo as their “supreme president” or “supremo” claims 5 million members around the country, and 500 in Cebu alone.
A standing arrest warrant for Ecleo was issued last year after he skipped three hearings in the criminal trial in Cebu and jumped bail.
He hasn’t been seen since last year when the Sandiganbayan sentenced him to 31 years in jail for three counts of graft in a separate case involving his former stint as mayor of Dinagat.
Bartolome was in Cebu yesterday for “Operation Tuli (circumcision),” a nationwide project of his wife, Naomi. For Cebu, the beneficiaries were the children in Mandaue City.
The PNP chief advised his men to coordinate with people in the communities to locate Ecleo’s whereabouts.
He said policemen had to rely on the cooperation of the public especially when they had difficulty in arresting wanted persons.
But in the end, he added, these criminals still fell into the hands of the authorities.
“It is just that there are instances that there will some difficulties in hunting them down but in time we will get them,” he said.
Ecleo was sentenced to reclusion perpetua (at least 30 years imprisonment) on Friday when Judge Soliver Peras of Regional Trial Court Branch 10 pronounced him guilty of parricide for killing his wife Alona in Jan. 5, 2002, in their residence in Forest Hills, Guadalupe, Cebu City.
Ecleo was also ordered to pay heirs of his wife P25.65 million in damages and attorney’s fees.
The congressman’s lawyer said they would contest the court decision.
“Among pangandoy karon nga unta ang mga polis makadakop gyud niya (Ecleo). Mas maayo kon naay reward money nga ikahatag nadto sa mga makatudlo asa siya. (We are hoping that the police can arrest Ecleo. It would be better if there’s reward money given to the person who can reveal where Ecleo is),” Angelito told Cebu Daily News yesterday.
Angelito and his brother Josebil remain under the protection of a police agency following promulgation of the verdict against Ecleo on Friday.
“We don’t have enough money. If only there will be people that can help us raise funds for the reward money,” he said.
Prosecutors said they would ask President Aquino to help hasten Ecleo’s arrest.
Prosecution lawyer Kit Enriquez said they can ask the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to put up the reward money.
“If Ecleo was an ordinary citizen, he would have been arrested right away. Someone may be influencing the course of justice,” Enriquez said.
Enriquez said an informant told him last Friday that the “White Eagles,” an elite group of men handpicked by Ecleo as his close-in bodyguards, have been “activated” to protect their supremo.
The risk of reprisal on the Bacolods and even prosecution lawyers remains a possibility.
“We just have to be alert. We don’t know what is on their mind. There were threats before. We are used to it. But we don’t have to be complacent,” he said.
Most of the casualties in the 2002 siege of Dinagat Island were members of the “White Eagles.”
In June 2002, Alona’s brother Ben was shot dead inside the family’s residence in barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City. Also killed were Ben’s parents, Elpidio and Rosalia Bacolod; his sister Evelyn; and a neighbor.
The gunman, Rico Gumonong, an active supporter of Ecleo, was a bank security guard in Cebu City.
Ecleo posted P1 million bail in 2004 and was allowed to seek medical treatment for a heart ailment.
Enriquez said anyone, even an ordinary citizen, can arrest Ecleo since the latter is a “fugitive.”
Another prosecution lawyer Fritz Quinanola said it’s the government’s job to put up the reward for Ecleo’s arrest.
“If we use fear of dying as reason in not arresting Ecleo, then law enforcers will have an excuse in not arresting dangerous criminals,” he said.
Thelma Chiong, national vice president of the Crusade Against Violence (CAV), said reward money would surely help.
CAV earlier raised funds from donors when Alona’s dead body underwent DNA testing years ago.
She said P200,000 was given by Tomas Osmeña who was then Cebu City mayor.
Chiong, said CAV, which has been supporting the Bacolods in the case, said they would appeal to local governments for the fund.
Enriquez said they already wrote to House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte to delete Ecleo from the roll of congressmen but no action has been taken yet.
“Congress is tolerating it. I feel Congress should do it’s part. It is not good to consider a criminal in Congress. That’s totally crazy,” Enriquez said.
He said people of Dinagat Island are deprived of proper representation.
“Since their congressman is a convicted solon, he should be replaced,” he said.
He e said Ecleo seem to continue receiving salaries and allowances from Congress although was already convicted of graft cases.
“They (congressmen) should have acted already since there is already a conviction,” Enriquez said./With a report from Correspondents Jhunnex Napallacan and Chito Aragon