ALTHOUGH he took a two-week leave to study the parricide case of cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr., it was “ordinary” work, said the judge who convicted Ecleo last Friday.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Soliver Peras of Branch 10 said this as he called on law enforcement agencies to arrest the cult leader, who remains at large.
Ecleo’s 52nd birthday was celebrated yesterday by followers in chapters in Talisay, Argao and Lapu-Lapu City, among others.
Peras issued the appeal as the Department of Justice ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to join the manhunt for Ecleo.
The 54-year-old judge, who usually declines to grant interviews, talked to reporters about how he handled the Ecleo case.
“The case against Ecleo was ordinary. If I would treat it as imsomething important, it would be unfair to the other cases,” said Peras, the seventh judge to handle the 10-year parricide case.
He said he wasn’t afraid of threats to his safety from Ecleo’s Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) since it comes with the territory.
“When you take your oath of office, it means you’re ready to face cases that are controversial enough. When the first sign of threat takes place, you should not pack up your bags and inhibit yourself,” Peras said.
The only pressure he felt, Peras said, was the voluminous court records.
“In every case you handle, you assume there is one (threat). Nothing changed in my life when I handled the Ecleo case,” said Peras, who is an army reservist.
Nevertheless, Peras said he doesn’t dismiss the potential danger posed by the PBMA whose “White Eagles” clashed with police in a raid at Ecleo’s home in Dinagat Island in 2002.
“There are rumors about it. Let us not make fun of it. We should consider everything a threat,” the 54-year-old judge said.
Peras said he took a two-week leave of absence to study the case. He said came up with the decision in two months.
In Argao town, 69-year-old PBMA member Flaviano Martinez said he still retains his faith in Ecleo decades after he joined the group in 1974.
“I looked for a god. I encountered him in the PBMA,” Martinez told Cebu Daily News.
Martinez was among a group of PBMA members who went to the Palace of Justice last week when the verdict against Ecleo was announced.
Ecleo was found guilty of killing his wife Alona inside their residence in sitio Banawa, barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, on Jan. 5, 2002.
He was sentenced to 20 to 40 years and ordered to pay P26.3 million in damages to Alona’s heirs.
Ecleo also faces a 31-year jail term after he was convicted by the Sandiganbayan on graft for overspending government funds for two municipal buildings during his tenure as mayor of San Jose, Dinagat Island in Zamboanga del Norte.
Martinez said Ecleo’s conviction has been prophesied and is part of his mission.
“Ecleo’s words brings us healing. I believe that when the master will rise from the dead, all of us will be saved,” he said. He said they don’t know where Ecleo was.
For his part, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said no reward money should be given for informants on Ecleo.
He said the search and arrest of the cult leader should serve to challenge the country’s law enforcement agencies.
“Release of cash rewards will only be made based on assessment and on exceptional cases since it would encourage profiteering,” he said.
Rama said tapping technology like closed-circuit TV cameras should be used to find Ecleo.
Rama said the failure of police and other agencies to arrest Ecleo would only be a slap to the justice system. /Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol, Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac and UP Cebu Intern Peter Romanillos