Court orders DNA tests on Ecleo and his kids

CEBU CITY - The judge handling the case of cult leader and parricide suspect Ruben
Ecleo Jr. has ordered Ecleo and his children to appear before the court for a DNA
sampling on June 27.

Regional Trial Court Judge Geraldine Faith Econg issued the order after denying the
motion of Ecleo, who said that subjecting him and his children to DNA sampling
which, he said, is improper and baseless, may violate their right to privacy.

Econg clarified that to compel Ecleo and his children to undergo a DNA sampling is
not a violation of their constitutional rights.

“A person’s saliva, blood, tissue, hair, and other parts of its body are not and
cannot be a person’s property. Also, the conduct of DNA sampling for DNA testing, a
person is not curtailed or deprived of his liberty whereby he is brought into the
custody of the court,” Econg said.

The prosecution maintains that DNA tests should be conducted to determine if the
body found in Dalaguete town was that of Ecleo’s wife, Alona Bacolod Ecleo.

But Ecleo said that since the prosecution has already established the identity of
the cadaver through the testimony of police Inspector Edgar Leñizo, there is no need
to introduce more evidence.

But Econg said that “for what good will DNA samplings do if it will not be for DNA
testing? It logically follows that if DNA samples are taken, it will be for DNA
testing.”

“This court would prefer to rule on it only when the prosecution is about to present
in evidence the DNA test. The objection to the relevancy is still premature,” she
said.

Ecleo had denied killing his wife, stuffing her body in a garbage bag and dumping it
at a roadside in Dalaguete on Jan. 5, 2002. He had said that he loved his wife and
could not have killed her.

It took several lives and more than 100 government troopers to force Ecleo to
surrender on June 18 of the same year.

Some of Ecleo’s supporters in the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association
(PBMA) engaged the arresting policemen in a shootout in San Jose, Dinagat Island,
Surigao del Norte.

A PBMA member was also accused of killing three members of the Bacolod family,
including witness Ben Bacolod, in their residence in Mandaue City on the day Ecleo
surrendered.

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