8 Ecleo cult members with high-powered guns nabbed

Inquirer News Service/December 4, 2004
By Jhunnex Napallacan

Cebu City, Philippines -- Eight members of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), the cult group headed by Ruben Ecleo Jr., was intercepted in Lapulapu City on Friday night while carrying high-powered firearms on board a van. The seized items included an M16 rifle, three baby Armalites, several grenades, silencers, assorted ammunition, bonnets, fatigue uniforms and wigs.

Sr. Supt. Louie Oppus, chief of the Lapulapu police, said policemen apprehended the suspects in a checkpoint in Sitio Buaya, Barangay Mactan, Lapulapu City around 11 p.m. on Friday.

One of the suspects, Nestor Carrol, of Lapulapu City, claimed he owned the firearms that he was going to "deliver" to communist rebel leaders in Catbalogan, Samar for a price of P300,000.