Secure Ecleo

Lost amid the spotlight on Bella Ruby Santos’ arrest was the Sandiganbayan ruling with finality over cult leader Ruben Ecleo’s arrest on graft charges filed when he was still mayor of Dinagat Island.

That case along with the parricide charges leveled against him for the murder of his wife Alona tightens the noose on Ecleo, whose whereabouts remain all but unknown except to his lawyers, family and followers.

Despite Ecleo’s  absence  in court, the judge will deliver a final ruling in December.

After everything is said and done, at  least the charges against the cult leader and congressman  will finally see resolution.

Whether the light of day shines on the Bacolod family, personal safety remains under threat from Ecleo’s Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association or on the cult leader himself, only the judge can tell.

What’s important is that for all the legal maneuvers  of the Ecleo camp, including the principal suspect’s victory in the 2010 elections, and  despite his claims of being too heart-sick  to stand trial, the court managed to stay the course.

It took  several years of wrangling and passing the case from one judge to another.  Understandably no magistrate was eager to be  in the crosshairs of the fanatical group that Ecleo commands.

The announcement of the court ruling this December is no small comfort to the Bacolods, who lost several families in violent deaths in the long years of court hearings where they had to endure  delaying tactics of a  defendant who had political and religious power at his disposal.

It was no small feat either for the presiding judge, the one holding the last baton,  to wrap up the case.

In the two interim months, silence will prevail until the court comes out with the ruling.

In the meantime,  authorities should track down  Ecleo and ensure he doesn’t leave the country or hole himself up again in his stronghold in Dinagat Island, if he hasn’t done that already.

Last time, the cult leader did that,  a military-police contingent had to “invade” Dinagat Island and bring him to stand trial in Cebu.

We can hardly expect Ecleo to surrender now, but it’s better if the authorities locate him and persuade him to  be accessible so he can be present at the court’s promulgation of his ruling.

An absentee Ecleo would somehow rob the court and the parties of the impact of the final judgement.

Let the cult leader face the music, unfavorable or not, and let not his absence make a mockery of justice and the court of law.