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Congressman Ruben Ecleo Jr. found guilty of murdering wife


Ruben Ecleo was convicted Friday of murdering his wife in 2002. Now authorities need to find him so he can serve his sentence.

The lawmaker was meted a life sentence or reclusion perpetua by a Cebu court and ordered to pay P25 million in damages to the family of his late wife, Alona Bacolod-Ecleo, according to a report on GMA’s “24 Oras." Ecleo, the leader of the Dinagat-based Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, is still at large.
 
The murder charges were filed against Ecleo in 2002. He was accused of strangling his wife to death.  Alona Ecleo's body was found decomposing in a ravine in January 2002.

Two of her siblings and her parents were massacred in their home in Mandaue City in June of the same year, believed by surviving family members to be a brutal attempt by Ecleo's men to frighten them from testifying. They testified anyway.

A judge canceled his bail after he failed to show up at three consecutive hearings.
 
Ecleo, who inherited the group's leadership from his father who founded it in 1965, was previously convicted of graft charges stemming from an anomalous construction project when he was San Jose town mayor in Surigao del Norte from 1991 to 1994.

Followers in Dinagat believe Ecleo is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. — Rouchelle Dinglasan/ELR/HS, GMA News

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