‘Capitol can’t help’

Since the crime happened outside the province’s jurisdiction, the Capitol asid it cannot offer reward money for the arrest of parricide suspect Ruben Ecleo Jr. .

“I cannot accede to (lawyer Kit Enriquez’s) request because of the circumstances prevailing upon this case,” Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said in a press conference.

Enriquez earlier requested the governor to put up reward money to hasten Ecleo’s his arrest.

The Cebu provincial government offered P300,000 for the arrest of Bella Ruby Santos, one of the suspects in the murder of 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique. Santos was arrested last month after a tipster informed the National Bureau of Investigation that Santos is in a mall in Mandaluyong.

But Garcia said the circumstances in Ecleo’s case and that of Ellah Joy are different.

“The abduction happened in Minglanilla. Her body was found in the area between Barili and Dumanjug. Those towns fall under the territorial jurisdiction of the Cebu provincial government and this crime happened during my watch as governor of Cebu,” she said.

In contrast, Garcia said the murder of Ecleo’s wife happened in Cebu City at a time when she was not yet governor.

Garcia said though she understand Enriquez’s concern, she cannot overstep her boundaries.

“I do not wish to overstep my boundaries because if I do now, what would stop any other person from requesting me to offer bounty to any person who jumps bail or cannot be located or eludes arrest?,” she explained.

The governor said Enriquez continues to be a good friend because of his support for the Capitol’s task force against criminality.

Ecleo, supreme master of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, is accused of allegedly killing his wife last Jan. 5, 2002, in their residence in Forest Hills, Banawa and ordering the dispoal of her remains in a ravine in Dalaguete, Cebu./correspondent carmel loise matus