Ecleo’s arrest warrant stays

A CEBU City court turned down the request of Ruben Ecleo Jr. to cancel the arrest warrant issued against him.

In an order dated Sept. 6, Regional Trial Court Judge Soliver Peras of Branch 10 denied the plea of defense lawyers to restore the bail bond granted to Ecleo in 2004.

Peras said the argument raised by Ecleo’s lawyers  was “without merit.”

“The court sympathizes with the legal problems the accused is now confronted with, but the rules must prevail so that order in the proceedings in the court must be followed by every litigants;  otherwise, people would no longer believe in the courts and what it stands for,” the judge said.

Peras also noted that Ecleo didn’t undergo an heart bypass operation although he complained of having a heart ailment.

He said this “only strengthens the belief and suspicion by the prosecution that his illness has been concocted or fabricated.”

The  court allowed Ecleo to post P1-million bail for his temporary liberty so he could undergo medical treatment for his  heart ailment.

Last April 6, the judge canceled Ecleo’s bail after Ecleo failed to attend three straight hearings  on the parricide case filed against him for the death of his wife Alona in Jan. 5, 2002.

An arrest warrant was issued against him.

Ecleo’s lawyers contested the ruling saying the former congressman was “beset with an extreme legal predicament” involving his conviction in three cases before the Sandiganbayan.

He was found guilty of overpricing construction supplies during his stint as mayor of San Jose, Dinagat Island, in Surigao del Norte.

Ecleo is contesting the ruling before the Supreme Court.

A second warrant of arrest was issued by the Sandiganbayan against him./REPORTER ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL