NATIONAL Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director Debold Sinas said a lone informant from Dinagat Islands will receive the P2-million reward for the arrest of fugitive Ruben Ecleo Jr., a cult leader who was convicted of graft and parricide.
Four policemen, meanwhile, will receive meritorious promotion, said Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Archie Gamboa.
“May mga mapo-promote ditto meritoriously because it is not an easy thing to track a fugitive who is wanted for 14 years,” Gamboa said.
He said the NCRPO will make recommendations on the matter.
Gamboa said the PNP will refund NCRPO for the operational expenses incurred during the implementation of Oplan Almighty to capture Ecleo.
Sinas has declined to identify the informant as a security measure.
The informant had told the police that Ecleo left his home on Dinagat Islands six years ago for Davao, where he stayed for two years.
Ecleo moved to Luzon from Davao. He had been staying with his wife and daughter in Balibago in Angeles City for the past four years.
Ecleo, supreme master of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), was convicted of graft and corruption by the Sandiganbayan in 2006.
He was also convicted of parricide in 2012 for the killing of his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo, whose body was found dumped in Dalaguete, Cebu in early January 2002.
Ecleo surrendered to authorities on June 18, 2002, after a bloodbath on Dinagat Islands that killed 16 PBMA members and a policeman.
He was imprisoned for almost two years at the Cebu City Jail. In March 2004, he was allowed to post bail of P1 million.
The bail was cancelled in April 2011 and a new warrant for his arrest was issued after he failed to attend court hearings.
It was the second arrest warrant issued against him that year. In January 2011, the Sandiganbayan also issued an arrest warrant against him.
Police served on Ecleo the arrest warrant from the Sandiganbayan when he was captured at about 4:30 a.m. of July 30, 2020.
The parricide case is still under review by the Supreme Court. (SunStar Philippines)