Pubdate: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer (Philippines) Copyright: 2002 Philippine Daily Inquirer Contact: http://www.inquirer.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1073 Author: Jolene R. Bulambot, Inquirer News Service Note: To read more about the Philippines latest anti-drug crusade visit http://www.mapinc.org/areas/philippines . DETAINED CULT LEADER INSISTS PACKS OF SHABU NOT HIS Drug Smuggling In Jail CEBU CITY -- Detained cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. has asked the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office to dismiss the charges of possession of illegal drugs filed against him, claiming that the packs of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) found in his luggage at this city's jail were "planted." He maintained that these packs were intentionally placed in his belongings to aggravate the parricide charges he is now facing at the city's Regional Trial Court. "I was profoundly shocked and surprised when I learned that my traveling bag contained three heat-sealed sachets of shabu surreptitiously hidden in an Ivory bath soap, a kind of bath soap which I never used even once in my entire life," he said. Ecleo, who is detained at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC), is accused of killing his wife Alona, whose decomposing body was found in Dalaguete town, some 85 km south of this city. In his eight-page counter affidavit, Ecleo denied owning the three packs, containing about a gram of shabu each, which were inserted inside a bar of soap. The drugs were found when jail guards searched his personal belongings inside his luggage after he was committed at the BBRC on June 21. Jail Officer 1 Aleth Romanillos said in her affidavit that the three packs were concealed inside a half-used Ivory soap. Ecleo, "supreme master" of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, claimed that he never had any personal belonging with him when he was brought to Camp Crame in Quezon City shortly after his arrest on Dinagat Island on June 19. Ecleo said his followers in Metro Manila supplied his personal needs such as beddings, towels, t-shirts, pants and short pants, which were placed inside an Everlight Creation traveling bag. The members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), he added, thoroughly inspected the bag. But Ecleo insisted that there was no Ivory bath soap among the items because his followers knew that he only used as bath soaps the brands Heno de Pravia and Dove. When they were about to leave for Cebu, he added, he failed to lock the bag because the CIDG members in Manila hurriedly took his luggage. "It would be very convenient for anybody to place and plant something inside (the bag to) incriminate me," Ecleo said. He also pointed out that he was handcuffed during the entire trip to Cebu that the CIDG personnel had to carry his suitcase. The luggage, he added, was also thoroughly checked during their departure at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and during their arrival at the Mactan Cebu International Airport. It even passed through X-ray machines at both airports, he added. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk