CEBU, Philippines, June 19 (AFP) - Some 23 people died in violence in the Philippines during the arrest of a politically connected messianic cult leader accused of murdering his wife, police said Wednesday.
Ruben Ecleo, 47, finally surrendered on Wednesday after a four-hour gun battle between police and Ecleo's followers at the cult's commune on the southern island of Dinagat, a police statement in Manila said.
Sixteen members of Ecleo's pseudo-Christian Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), including a co-defendant in the murder case, were killed when they tried to prevent police from arresting the two men, said regional police chief Alberto Olario.
A policeman was also killed and two others were wounded after a volley of gunfire met the warrant-servers, said Olario, who led the Dinagat team.
As the operation got underway on Dinagat, a PBMA member armed with a machinegun broke into the home of Ecleo's in-laws in nearby Mandaue, killing Ecleo's father-in-law Elpidio Bacolod, his wife Rosalia, their son Ben and daughter Evelyn.
A neighbor was also killed while Bacolod's other son Ricky was wounded, police said.
The gunman was later slain by police, while a government militiaman was wounded.
Ben Bacolod was a government witness in the murder case against Ecleo, police said.
"The problem in Dinagat has now ended and they (residents) are now back to their normal life," Olario said on Manila television.
He said the police have secured a hilltop mansion where Ecleo had holed up shortly after he was indicted for the January murder of his wife Alona in this central city of Cebu.
Two other PBMA members were arrested as police seized three assault rifles, a machinegun and a revolver plus bullets from the compound.
Ecleo told local radio that he had long wanted to surrender to Senator Robert Barbers, a political ally of his family, "but my members won't let me."
He did not comment on the case against him and on the massacre of his in-laws.
The police official said Ecleo, former mayor of a Dinagat town, is to be flown to Manila accompanied by his mother, House of Representatives member Glenda Ecleo, and Barbers, who helped negotiate the surrender.
Ecleo, 47, is considered by followers to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
His father, also named Ruben, founded the PBMA in 1965 and assumed the title of "Divine Master", claiming the ability to revive the dead and the powers of healing, mental telepathy, communication through dreams and prediction.
After the father's death in 1987, the son assumed the title, police said.
The group's website claims 3.5 million members in 15 countries.
The remains of the younger Ecleo's wife were found stuffed in a black garbage bag at the bottom of a cliff in the south of Cebu island on January 30. Police said the 27-year-old woman had been strangled.
Police allege Ecleo had killed his wife, a medical student, because she was badgering him to undergo rehabilitation for drug abuse.
Ecleo, who lived with his wife and two children in Cebu city, fled his home following the discovery of the body.
There are several thousand members of the cult on Dinagat island, many of them armed, police said.
Cult members, who carry amulets which they say ensure bullets do not harm them, helped the military fight communist guerrillas during the elder Ecleo's stewardship of the cult.