Cops fail to find, arrest Ecleo at his home

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines—Policemen tasked to arrest Dinagat Islands Represenatative Ruben Ecleo Jr. have failed to arrest the fugitive lawmaker.

Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Rafal, police chief for the Caraga Region, said a team of police enforcers went home empty-handed on Sunday after they were sent to arrest Ecleo at his home province, the stronghold of his religious cult, the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, or PBMA.

But Rafal said several leads on the possible hideouts of the lawmaker were being tracked down and monitored.

“Efforts to arrest Ecleo failed. We don’t know his exact location right now, but we are convinced he is only hiding in the Philippines. The long arm of the law will finally fall on him,” Rafal told the Inquirer.

Rafal urged Elceo to surrender in order to avoid a repeat of the 2002 violent confrontation between authorities and his followers, which left a policeman and 16 PBMA members dead.

Rafal admitted that arresting Ecleo at his home would be a risky operation, citing the presence of thousands of hardline PBMA members living in the area.

The PBMA was founded by Ecleo’s father, Ruben Sr. PBMA members look up at Ruben Sr. as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. The young Ecleo succeeded as the group’s “Supreme Master” when his father died in 1987.

“The peaceful way out of this is for Ecleo to peacefully surrender because we will hunt him down and we mean business,” Rafal said.

In 2002, a bloody gun battle erupted between Ecleo’s followers and police enforcers serving the warrant on Ecleo for allegedly killing his wife.

Rafal also called on the powerful Ecleo political clan to intervene and help convince the lawmaker to surrender peacefully.

For her part, Dinagat Island Vice Governor Jade Ecleo, younger sister of the convicted lawmaker, reiterated her plea for Ruben Jr. to voluntarily yield.

She feared that if her brother remains in hiding, authorities would be forced to put out a bounty for his arrest, “dead or alive,” which might further complicate the issue and put his life in danger.

“I’m pleading to my kuya (brother) to surrender because the longer he hides … the more the problem will get worse,” the vice governor said.