Ten years after his wife was murdered, Philippine cult leader Ruben Ecleo was found guilty of parricide and sentenced to reclusion perpetua, or at least 30 years’ imprisonment.
The former congressman who earlier this year was also sentenced to 31 years in jail for graft is missing.
The Philippines Supreme Court has denied with finality the appeal of Dinagat Islands Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr. seeking to reverse the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court’s 2006 ruling convicting him and two other people of graft and sending them to 31 years in prison.
Ecleo still faces an often-delayed trial on charges that he committed parricide by murdering his wife Alona in January, 2002.
A court in the Philippines has reconfrmed the validity of an arrest warrant for cult leader and politician Ruben Ecleo Jr.
In October 2006 Ecleo was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison on graft charges. The cult leader still faces a trial in the murder of his wife.
The Sandiganbayan — a special court in the Philippines — has ordered the arrest of cult leader — and Congress member — Ruben Ecleo and two others after the Supreme Court dismissed their motion to overturn their conviction on graft charges, the Philippine Daily Inquirer writes.
Cult leader and parricide suspect Ruben Ecleo Jr. snubbed the resumption of his seven-year controversial parricide case in Cebu, citing health reasons for his failure to show up in court on Wednesday.
Ecleo is charged for the brutal death of his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo and has put up a P1 million bail for his temporary liberty, citing his worsening health condition as a reason.
Ecleo, the supreme leader of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association and a former mayor of San Jose town in Dinagat Island in Surigao del Norte, is on trial in connection with the killing of his wife, at the time a medical student at one of the local universities in Cebu.