THE two former lawyers of fugitive cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. are facing an administrative complaint before the Supreme Court for alleged malpractice and gross misconduct that led to the religious leader’s parricide conviction in 2012.
Insp. Atilano Fabella, former team leader of the police’s Regional Crime Laboratory in Central Visayas, filed the disbarment complaint against lawyers Orlando Salatandre and Giovanni Mata.
“(The) acts of Atty. Salatandre, et al, are clear manifestation of their infidelity, unfairness, and disloyalty to their client and are therefore forms of malpractice and gross misconduct,” read Fabella’s complaint, a copy of which was sent to SunStar Cebu.
Fabella served as adviser of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) Leyte chapter from 1987 to 2003.
Fabella confirmed that Ecleo is still in the country.
The religious cult leader is reportedly willing to surrender to authorities once the Supreme Court grants the disbarment of Salatandre and Mata.
Sought for comment, Salatandre denied that he and Mata mishandled Ecleo’s case.
Salatandre said that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines dismissed for lack of evidence the two administrative cases that Fabella filed against them over the same incident. He labeled as “fabricated” Fabella’s allegations that he and Mata committed legal malpractice during Ecleo’s trial.
Salatandre also denied receiving a total of P35 million from Ecleo for the case.
Last April 13, 2012, Judge Soliver Peras found Ecleo guilty of parricide for the death of his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo inside their house in Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City in 2002.
Ecleo was sentenced to reclusion perpetua, or 20 to 40 years in prison. Peras also ordered Ecleo to pay his wife’s heirs P25 million in compensatory damages, P200,000 in moral damages, P200,000 in exemplary damages, P200,000 attorney’s fees and P50,000 in temperate damages.
Notice of appeal
The defense filed a notice of appeal, but Peras denied it after the former Dinagat Island representative and PBMA leader failed to appear when the court handed down its decision.
Ecleo failed to surrender on April 30, 2012, more than 15 days after the promulgation, or to justify his absence from the promulgation.
In June 2013, Ecleo’s lawyers filed the petition for certiorari, prohibition and mandamus asking the Court of Appeals to set aside the order of Peras, who denied his motion to transmit the case records to the CA and to inhibit himself from the case for lack of merit.
But the CA has affirmed Ecleo’s conviction.
In the complaint, Fabella said that the defense lawyers failed and refused to move for a “complete physical identification” of the identity of the female cadaver found in Dalaguete, Cebu.
Had the complete physical identification been conducted on the body, the court would have been appraised that Bacolod stood 5’2” tall. The female cadaver found in Dalaguete, Cebu was reportedly 5’5” tall, said Fabella.
The defense lawyers also refused to present in court the report of Insp. Edmar dela Torre, who found negative the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) examination on the cadaver and that of Alona.
“If only the examiner has been presented during the trial, his testimony could support the truth that the dead body was not that of the victim Alona and that there was no commotion and struggle that transpired in the house of Ecleo,” the complaint read.
The lawyers, along with their allies in the PBMA, allegedly collected about P20 million from its members from 2002 to 2012 supposedly to ensure the acquittal of Ecleo.