Former Dinagat Island Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr. File Photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — Former Dinagat Islands Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr., the “supreme master” of cult group Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), is now in police custody after he was arrested by the police in Pampanga.
Ecleo was presented to the media by Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, director of the National Capital Region Police Office, in a press conference on Thursday.
In 2006, Ecleo was ordered arrested after the Sandiganbayan found him guilty of graft and corruption over the anomalous construction of a public market and municipal building, and the repair and rehabilitation of a building owned by his family’s cult when he was mayor of San Jose in Dinagat Islands from 1991 to 1994.
He was then sentenced to 31 years in jail for the crimes.
Later in 2012, he was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of parricide over the death of his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo.
Alona was strangled to death at their home in Cebu City in January 2002. Her body was later found inside a garbage bag dumped in a ravine in Dalaguete town.
However, Ecleo was able to elude arrest for all these crimes.