The Regional Trial Court yesterday ordered cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. and his doctor to submit a medical report to prove that Ecleo is indeed sick.
Judge Geraldine Econg issued the directive after Ecleo told the court that he might be unable to attend his two hearings this month because he was undergoing medical treatment in Manila.
The judge gave Ecleo and his physician, Cresente Boncaros, five days to submit the medical report.
Econg told the Inquirer that she has no intention to delay the hearings of the parricide case where Ecleo stands accused of killing his wife, Alona Bacolod-Ecleo, in January 2002.
The court earlier required Ecleo to attend the hearings, set on Jan. 28 and 29.
But Ecleo, "supreme master" of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, submitted a one-page letter, informing the court that he might not be able to go to Cebu because he was in Manila now undergoing medical tests.
In his letter, Ecleo told Judge Econg that he was also confined at the Miranda Family Hospital in Surigao City on Dec. 21 and 22 due to "angina pectoris," a medical term for chest pain.
Attached to the letter was a medical certificate dated Dec. 22, 2004 signed by Boncaros, Ecleo's doctor in Surigao City.
Ecleo was freed in April 2004 on a P1 million bail to enable him to seek medical treatment for his heart ailment.
His lawyer, Orlando Salatandre, said that since his release, Ecleo has been frequenting Manila for his medical treatment and check-up.
Although it was not sure if Ecleo would be able to attend his hearings, RTC Executive Judge Simeon Dumdum said he might send more security guards to the Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan Hall after receiving reports that some people had separately approached Judge Econg about the Ecleo parricide case.
Dumdum said he would call a meeting among judges and administration officers to evaluate security at the courts.
He said Econg told him at least three women separately approached her in December.
The three women had one request - stop handling the case and allow the transfer of the case hearings to Manila.
Econg said these women wore rings similar to those being worn by members of the PBMA.
"Judges, because of their position, get all sorts of approaches from different parties. We, judges, are bound by our oath. We have to be impartial and objective," Dumdum said.
Supt. Paul Labra, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, said he would request for a close-in bodyguard for Econg.
"We told her to inform us immediately if she would be approached again," Labra said.
In October, lawyer Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco, private prosecutor in the parricide case, was shot dead inside her home in Barangay Zapatera in this city.
Michel Favila, the alleged gunman and a PBMA member, is now facing charges for Yongco's murder.