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.