SC asked to block arrest warrant vs Rep. Ecleo

(Updated 4:56 p.m.) Dinagat Islands Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr. asked the Supreme Court on Friday to prevent the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan from implementing the warrant of arrest issued against him over graft charges.

In a seven-page "extremely urgent motion," Ecleo, also "supreme master" of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), asked the high court to issue a temporary restraining order against the arrest warrant, arguing that he has two pending motions before the SC, and thus, the Sandiganbayan cannot yet order his arrest.

"It is respectfully prayed that immediately upon receipt thereof, and pending disposition of this motion as well as petitioner's motion for reconsideration filed on Dec. 9, 2010, the Honorable Court issue a temporary restraining order commanding the Sandiganbayan, and all agents and officers acting on its behest and authority, to cease and desist from implementing the warrant of arrest and causing the arrest of petitioner," said Ecleo.

The first motion is to re-raffle the case to a different court division, while the other motion is appealing the SC's dismissal of one of Ecleo's appeals because it was filed late.

Last Jan. 28, 2011, the Sandiganbayan's First Division issued a new arrest warrant against Ecleo after the SC affirmed last November the anti-graft court’s decision to convict Ecleo and two other local officials for graft.

Ecleo was convicted for his alleged involvement in anomalous construction deals when he was still mayor of San Jose town in Surigao del Norte from 1991 to 1994.

Ecleo gained national attention when 22 of his followers and a policeman were killed in a firefight in June 2002 at the PBMA compound on Dinagat Island off Surigao del Norte. Unharmed, he surrendered shortly after the incident.

Police and military forces then were trying to arrest him as a suspect in the brutal murder of his wife, Alona Bacolod Ecleo, and her parents. — LBG/RSJ, GMA News