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The Ecleos and their kingdomCAGAYAN DE ORO CITY--Former Mayor Ruben Ecleo Jr. of San Jose, Surigao del Norte, is a wanted man. He is accused of killing his own wife Alona in Cebu last January and has been ordered arrested so he could be tried in court on the charge of parricide. But he is not merely a politician or a son of Surigao del Norte Rep. Glenda Ecleo. He is the "supreme president" of a Mindanao-based cult with members who are willing to die for their "master". Such zealotry could be attributed to Ecleo's late father Ruben Sr. from whom the ex-mayor inherited the cult's mantle of leadership. For 37 years, the Surigao del Norte-based Ecleo cult, Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), has been preaching a doctrine lifted from the teachings of Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism mixed with occultism and astrology. It was the late Ruben Ecleo Sr. who started it all. In 1965, the "divine master" and a handful of his followers formally organized the PBMA in Ozamiz City. Its incorporators were Ecleo, Arsenio Nazareno of Calbayog, Francisco Enerio of Misamis Oriental, Floro Caboverde of Zamboanga City, Carlos Lomanta of Ozamiz, Maximo Ravelo of Davao Oriental; Pedro Montives of Leyte, Dionisio Cui of Davao del Norte, Victoriano Rafols of Lanao del Norte, and Eusebio Bandivas, Casiano Gorrea and Maximo Caboverde of Zamboanga del Norte. The elder Ecleo's "missionary work", however, started much earlier than 1965. Between 1958 and 1963, the years Ecleo supposedly immersed himself in his "missionary work", emerged the "divine master's" apostles who were referred to as the "First Thirteen". Two PBMA incorporators, Nazareno and Enerio, were among the Ecleo apostles. The others were Cipriano Otero of Gingoog City, his wife's brother Ruben Buray of Misamis Oriental, cousins George and Cupertino Edera of Basilisa and Martin Laturnas of Bohol, Ignacio Sombrado of Bohol, Teodoro Regacion of Leyte, Pedro Toquib of Bukidnon and Benjamin Ratonil of Cebu. The "First Thirteen", like the early New Testament apostles, were sent out by Ecleo to preach, "heal" the sick and recruit followers. The PBMA claims Ecleo started his "mission" as early as 1941 when the PBMA founder was still a boy. At eight, it said the boy Ruben had "reached far places on mission" and that he had received "dictations from the spiritual realm" in the mountains of northern Leyte at the age of 11. He began his "full mission" a year later, when he was already 12. The "dictations", according to the PBMA, came in the form of a voice from Devachan while Ecleo was meditating, surrounded by "pythons, deadly insects, venomous vipers and reptiles". Devachan, in Indian language, is the equivalent of the word "paradise" to Christians, a second heaven for the soul and a place of rest to Buddhists. The PBMA also claims Ecleo was guided by the Arhat and taught by the Avatar. Arhat is a Buddhist term for "worthy one" or "destroyer of the foe (ignorance)", a title given to those who have achieved "Nirvana" which is the state wherein a man is believed to have been freed from suffering or from the cycle of birth and death. In Hindu usage, Avatar refers to any incarnation of the god Vishnu. Used generally, it refers to any descent of a god into the world in human form. The "voices", adds the PBMA, trained Ecleo in reading and writing in Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Aramaic so he could "interpret the ancient mysteries" and make predictions based on "Akashic Records" or, in Hindu mysticism, "cosmic consciousness". Cult leaders say Ecleo had possessed the powers to be omnipresent like the "Master Jesus [Christ] who had been in the Americas, Egypt, India and in his native Judea simultaneously, aside from being in the monastery in the Essenean School, near Mount Serbal, overlooking the Black Sea". Mainstream Christian sects have rejected such teaching. The cultists claim Ecleo "could do almost anything" by reciting the Mantra which, in Hinduism and Buddhism, refers to a sacred word or syllable repeated in prayer and meditation. And like the biblical Jesus Christ, the PBMA leader can also transfigure himself and can even resurrect the dead, according to the cult. "Master Ruben can materialize anywhere at will," claims the PBMA. It said Ecleo, on numerous occasions since his childhood, had been present in various places at the same time. "While performing his missionary work in Agusan, he was also physically travelling somewhere in Davao, Bukidnon, Leyte and Samar, using different names (and) perhaps different faces, some of whom are old or young identities..." The cult said "all manifested personalities"--with nicknames such as Ben, Obing, Fred, Freddie, Ruben, Tony and Dr. Laway--had cured the sick like the "Lord Jesus who first applied these powers in Judea..." PBMA leaders say Ecleo's "healing powers" directly come from "our Divine Father by virtue of the sacred or divine prayers which are called in Occultism as Mantras". RUBEN Ecleo Sr. built for himself and his family a "kingdom" on impoverished Dinagat, a small, irregular and typhoon-prone island mass off the northeastern tip of Mindanao. Since it was chartered in 1965, the late cult leader's Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) virtually turned the entire island into an "Ecleo Country". The cult also became a political machinery that it created, wittingly or unwittingly, a political dynasty for the Ecleos. Ecleo's elder brother, Moises, became a governor of Surigao del Norte. His wife, the former Glenda Oliveros Buray of Gitagum, Misamis Oriental, is now a representative of Surigao del Norte to the Lower House while his son Ruben Jr. was one-time mayor of San Jose town. Another Ecleo son, Allan II, is presently mayor of the same town where the PBMA solidified its base. On San Jose now stand four multimillion-peso PBMA landmarks--the "Divine Master's Shrine", "Master's Mansion", "Comet House" and the cult's administration building. The San Jose edifices are indications that the PBMA has grown into a multimillion-peso, if not a billionaire establishment. It is estimated that the PBMA has already raised at least P35 million in entrance fees from its members since 1965. The figure is insignificant if one considered the estimated P70-million annual revenue the PBMA generates by imposing annual dues on its members in the country. The PBMA charter obliges each new member to pay P10 as "entrance fee". Every year, each PBMA member is expected to pay a P20-annual fee. The PBMA boasts of having 3.5 million members in the country alone. It claims it also has members in Jordan, Canada, Australia, Palau, Hong Kong, Guam, Singapore, Malaysia, London, Italy, Monaco, Germany, Hawaii, New York and Scotland, among others. The group claims it is also organizing more PBMA chapters abroad. Aside from its fixed entrance- and annual-fee incomes, the PBMA charter also encourages members to voluntarily give money "when the Board of Directors or the Supreme President... may desire to plead to the general members for the good or the betterment of the association". The association's constitution and by-laws is silent on the sale of PBMA rings but a Surigao city-based source said all its members are expected to wear one for identification. Each PBMA ring, according to the source, costs somewhere "between P50 to P100, more or less". With all the money the PBMA rakes in, not to mention the influence it wields over Dinagat, nearby towns and neighboring Surigao City, it has virtually become a little government in its own right with a well-greased "private army", ironically, on the impoverished Surigao del Norte island. "Many of the PBMA members living in Dinagat are armed," said a Surigao-based source who spoke on condition of anonymity. The source said the armed PBMA members have made an oath to protect the "master", referring to Ecleo's son and successor Ruben Jr. who is facing a lawsuit in connection with the grisly murder of his wife, the former Alona Bacolod. Alona, who died by strangulation, was found inside a garbage bag dumped in a secluded area in Cebu last January. Agents of the National Police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) who were sent to Dinagat island last week complained they failed to serve an arrest warrant against the parricide suspect because residents have been protecting the PBMA "master". The Cebu-based CIDG team also accused the entire San Jose police force of coddling Ruben Jr. who is believed hiding inside the Ecleo mansion in San Jose town. "That's the extent of the influence of the Ecleos in Dinagat. They even control the police," another source said. PHILIPPINE Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) "Divine Master" Ruben Ecleo Sr.'s namesake and other leaders of the group resent being called "cultists". They maintain that the PBMA is not a cult and that the group is "neither a religion nor a sect". Its primer says the PBMA is merely an association for brotherhood and charity and does not interfere with religious faiths. "Members have been constantly urged to strengthen their faith and relations with the religion where they respectively belong." The PBMA defines a cult as a "system of religious worship" and a group "devoted to a person, principle, etc."--therefore, according to them, the association does not fall under such category because "it does not practice any form of religious worship". None of the Ecleos is being worshipped as a god although the PBMA admits its followers give their late founder and his successor Ruben Jr. a "particular regard". The father and son, says the PBMA, have become their "rallying point in translating the aspirations of promoting world brotherhood, through benevolent practices, into actuality". That PBMA policies are being formulated by a board of directors, and not just by one person, "squarely negates the unwarranted accusation that (the PBMA) is a cult", reads a portion of the group's primer. And that PBMA members call the elder Ecleo "divine master" and his successor-son "supreme president" and "master" does not mean they are considered as religious leaders, much more as gods, the primer adds. "As the title of 'Grandmaster' is accorded to an international chess champion (and) 'Most Worshipful Master' or 'Very Worshipful Master' is given to the top leadership of the order of Masonry, so is the title of distinction bestowed to the successor (Ruben Jr.) of a leader who single-handedly organized such an internationally renowned organization as the PBMA... by calling him 'Master'." But the PBMA admits that its members regard its founder as "one (who) is devoted to God", "supremely great", "holy" and "good", not to mention "miracle worker". Aside from the elder Ecleo's "transfigurations", "healing powers", "ability to raise the dead", "accurately predict" and be "omnipresent", the PBMA also teaches that, like the biblical Jesus Christ, their late founder was resurrected from the dead and appeared to nearly "half a million of his followers and friends" on two occassions, specifically in the evenings of Dec. 24 and Dec. 31, 1987. The PBMA claims Ruben Sr. had predicted the day of his death, his supposed resurrection and re-appearance. It said the PBMA founder "re-appeared" four days after his death. The exact reason for Ecleo's death remains unclear to this day. Although it was not clear where Ruben Sr. "re-appeared", the PBMA claims to have recorded the supposedly resurrected group founder "discoursing, admonishing, singing, and embracing close relatives and friends" on tape. "And (how) do you call a person who, despite his humble origins and unknown beginnings, proved to have sucessfully cured (the) ailments of millions of people?" asks the PBMA. The PBMA primer did not give a categorical answer to that question but the group admitted in a separate account that their late leader and founder "gave an impression to the people... that (Ruben Sr.) was no less than (a) misguided psychophant (sic) or a crazy charlatan, bent on working with invisible denizens from whose powers he made manifest his psychic influence." |
HRB |
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