ECLEO WANTED PHOTOS/MAY 4, 2012:Mabolo Police Station displayed the wanted pictures of Dinagat congressman Ruben Ecleo, Jr. P/Sr. Supt. Melvin Buenafe, CCPO director order all City Police Stations to display the wanted pictures.(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
A RETIRED policeman and member of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) is seeking the reopening of the parricide case filed against PBMA cult leader and former Dinagat Islands Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr.
Senior Insp. Atilano Fabella will ask the Supreme Court to declare a “mistrial” and to allow the presentation of evidence for and against Ecleo.
“I believe there were insufficient evidence to convict him (Ecleo). He is innocent. He can’t do that to his wife,” Fabella told Cebu Daily News over the phone on Saturday.
Fabella, who is based in Palo town, Leyte, is set to hold a press conference in Mandaue City on Monday to elaborate on his claims.
It was Fabella who, in 2014, filed a disbarment complaint against Ecleo’s lawyers Orlando Salatandre Jr. and Giovanni Mata before the High Court for allegedly mishandling the case which led to Ecleo’s conviction.
Fabella said the two lawyers were liable for “negligence and lack of fidelity, care, and devotion to the cause of their client.”
“Those two lawyers failed and refused to move for the complete physical identification of the identity of the female cadaver who is indubitably not that of Alona Ecleo. They likewise refused to offer the DNA examiner for the confirmation of the negative DNA results,” Fabella said.
The PBMA member said that if only the DNA result was offered as evidence, then it would “definitely support the truth that there was no commotion and struggle that transpired” and would weaken the evidence presented by the prosecution.
“Atty. Salatandre should be held liable for malpractice and gross misconduct,” he said.
“Ruben Ecleo did not ask me to do this for him. The rule of law instructed me to do so,” he added.
Sought for comment, Salatandre said Fabella actually filed three disbarment cases against him, but two were already dismissed by the High Court.
He brushed aside accusations that he was not faithful in handling Ecleo’s case.
“Those who covered that case for years know me. And you know that if I am given a task, I give it my all. I am simply doing my work,” said Salatandre, a lawyer for 34 years.
He said Fabella belongs to a faction of the PBMA who may have been angry with him.
Lawyer Democrito Barcenas, one of the prosecution lawyers who fought Ecleo, refused to dwell on the rift between Salatandre and PBMA members.
“That’s no longer our problem. That is theirs,” he told Cebu Daily News.
Barcenas also believed that a reopening of the case was unlikely to happen.
“That was decided upon five years ago, and the decision is final. Somehow, somewhere the case must end. And they have not even surrendered Ecleo,” he said
Ecleo was sentenced to reclusion perpetua (at least 30 years imprisonment) in April 2012 by Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court Branch 10 after he was found guilty of parricide for killing his wife Alona in Jan. 5, 2002, in their residence in Forest Hills, Guadalupe, Cebu City.
Ecleo was also ordered to pay the heirs of his wife P25.65 million in damages and attorney’s fees.
The case was elevated before the Court of Appeals.
However, Associate Justice Gabriel Ingles of the appellate court’s 20th division affirmed the lower court’s ruling and denied Ecleo’s notice to appeal. The appellate court also made Ecleo’s conviction final and executory.
Ecleo has been a fugitive since an arrest warrant was issued against him in 2011 after he skipped three scheduled hearings in Cebu.
A nationwide manhunt was launched against the PBMA master.
In August 2012, then President Benigno Aquino III offered a P2-million reward to anyone who can give information that can lead to Ecleo’s arrest, but he has remained at large.